Merry Christmas to everyone! My favorite season is upon on us. Enjoy the holidays with your family and friends!

Chemistry.... why is it so.... ARGH!

I know I shouldn't be posting, but I need to vent. I have been working on Chemistry for about 20 hours now, (since my last post) and I am very frustrated. I just DON'T get it. It's so frustrating. And then they throw in all these complex log things that I cannot figure out. 4.40=4.266+log (x/0.03754-x). How the heck do you figure out x. The text tells us nothing about logs, but uses them nearly every page. I have been trying to figure out this one for a while. A math major friend of mine attempted to help me, but it wasn't going so well. Apparently he hasn't done much logs since highschool. :( Chemistry is an awful subject. I just want to pass, but it's making things difficult.

I want to welcome Josh to my blog. He is a better and more entertaining writer than me, so it should liven this place up a little. Also it means posts will be more frequent. Yay for that! SO look for updates from him on here too.

Also I won't be posting much until at least the 15th, due to exams. I planned out the next 9 days, and figured out what times I will be forcing myself to be at the library studying it. It adds up to 80 hours! 54 of which are dedicated to Chemistry. Blech... sounds exciting doesn't. If I'm needed, I'll be in the library.

Oh and if you get a chance, watch today's Oprah!! It's about living green and global warming, with Al Gore.

I will be incredibly happy after this PC ALberta Leadership vote is over. For the last 2 weeks, we've gotten at least 4 calls a day from candidates (or their supporters). It's frustrating, because half the time it's recorded messages, and it's exactly the same thing as the day before. But.. Jim Dinning I hope will win, he has quite the environmental platform. Guess we'll see, at least the phone won't keep ringing.

Today was the international Buy Nothing Day. Convieniently it is the same day as Black Friday. Our club had a stuff swap on campus. It was a store set up, but no money was exchanged.. just items. Kinda cool. Unfortunately today was also the big Country Christmas Craft Show at the Exhibition Grounds. Over 177 craft booths! :) I did go, and I did buy a couple of items (as gifts of course). I also wanted to scout it out, since I plan to have a booth next year for my cards. Last year I had said I wanted a booth this year... but I'm still in school. So next year... I have it in writing now... that I WILL have a booth at the craft show. There were 2 other card booths there this year. One of which the cards weren't very nice and they were charging $4 a card. The other one had great cards. :) I would considered mine to be on the same level as theirs. They were charging $3.50 a card. So I scouted it out, and both booths were selling a number of cards while we were there, so YAY!

My cats have been fantastic lately. I thought they'd be all over the tree, but they just leave it alone. Actaully they've been napping under it, but not disturbing it. Which is wonderful.

At this point, I think there is no way I can fail any of my classes. I think I'll even get through chem with a somewhat decent mark (my lab is definately going to drag up my mark). In lecture I'm sitting at 56% (higher than I thought), and she gave out a make up assignment which is able to add 6%to the top of my mark. So say I only get 50% on the assignment, I will be sitting at 59%. Which means I only need above a 40% on the final. :) which I can guarentee I'll get. So YAY!!! No chem worries anymore. With th lab factored in, I should get 65-75% on the course in the end. YAY for lab, even though it is a very brutal lab.

Ohh and I charged up my cell phone for the first time in,.... 8 or 9 months! They're threatening to cut me off if I don't use it soon. So I figure I'll carry it this week, and one day I'll call Josh to get him to pick me up!

I was reading yesterday about christmas trees and the environment. Artificial trees (which I have) are bad in that they have so many chemicals in them. Which really isn't bad, until it hits the land fill. Real trees, well.. you're cutting them down and killing them. Now being a christmas freak, christmas just isn't christmas without a christmas tree. So it gave a solution. In some cities you can rent a tree. It's a really neat idea. You pay a rental fee, and the tree comes burlapped up (roots), and after the holidays, the tree is picked up and gets planted within the city, whether it be a park, a schoolyard or something! It's brilliant! Right now this program is available in San Fransisco and Portland. Hopefully it takes off elsewhere for next year. If you have a real tree... make sure to recycle it at the end of the season!

Radium was fantastic! Relaxing and enjoyable! We got to enjoy the facilities within the condo (billiards..... I lost, but it was fun), movies and sleeping. The condo was very nice, very spacious. Josh's parents decided to buy. So now we will be able to enjoy it a couple times a year.

Once again I am working on Chemistry. I just don't get this stuff. I'm on my second time around in this course, and it's not any easier. In fact, having a different prof different material is covered. The average on the midterm from last week was in the 40% range.... which means I probably did even worse than that. I haven't found out yet (she's planning to hand out the marks tomorrow). I REALLY don't want to fail this class a second time. That would push back graduation, and I don't want that, I want to be done. I spent HOURS... DAYS studying for this midterm, and turned it in with only 2 questions actually answered. Not a good thing. Anyway, since the class mark was so low on the exam, she's decided to give us an assignment to help bring up our marks. So I really hope that the assignment will put me over the 50%. I'm REALLY hoping.

Registration for next semester is next week for me. I have 2 courses I am quite excited about, and according to others I should do very well at (easy markers). Then I have 2 biology classes. One is Evolution, which I'm not too excited about, and apparently is a very brutal course. Then i have molecular genetics. Which I would have thought is a difficult course, but according to proffessor ratings, if you just print out the ppt slides, and study just those, I should get an A. So that's comforting. Other than that I have an independent study that I have to do, but I haven't decided what topic I want to do. I do have an idea what prof I would like to do it thorugh though. So that's a start. Hopefully that is my last semester. It would just be this Chem course that may screw that up.

Christmas tree is going up on Wednesday night! from then it is only 39 days til christmas!

Getting away for the weekend.

It is a 5 day weekend. Well, that's not really news... since I never have class on Monday and Friday's anyway. But this weekend Josh gets them off too! We're going to Radium with his folks. It should be fun, good to get away. I can get away from everything here that is driving me crazy. I was hoping this weekend would be a break. But unfortunately I have an exam to write (submit online) and 3 assignments and then studying for another exam next week. But I will be in a different location. Plus... I get to do some soaking in the hotsprings... and probably have some tasty food. Very exciting. The ipod is being prepped for road trip!

Last weekend was the climate change weekend. The Be Aware Club (Biology and Environmental Science students) here on campus (which I am a part of) held a funeral for the climate. :) I didn't attend, but I was excited to read the coverage of it. They had a a priest, a coffin, grim reaper and much talk about the changing environment. They had it on the steps of City Hall and then walked down to the MP's office. These events were held all over the world. Not all done the same, but the same topic. But as Canadians we are not keeping out Kyoto commitment. We signed the Kyoto Accord, but have not reduced our emissions much at all. So sad. We could do so much!

Anyway... now I'm going to be bad.. and we're DRIVING to calgary. But there will be 3 people in our car. From Calgary we will all car pool out to Radium, rather than each driving seperately (or even as couples..).

Anyway, I was sent this video from a faculty member. Really interestinng. Watch it.
Movie
I liked the longer one better..


-apparently we'll have flying cars in 50 years.....

Halloween... I guess.

I think it's halloween, there are some strangely dressed people here at the University today. Which really isn't that weird.. there's quite a few of those drama-type people in this area of the U. I was excited about Halloween, the way the scheduling of my night class was, it looked like he was going to give us this evening off... but not so.. he decided to drag out his lecture last class. So Halloween.. it may be out there, but I'll never know. School from 8 am til 9 pm. Plus the extra time after my night class that I wait for Josh to finish his night class.. and meetings. SO I figure tonight I'll be out of here by 10 pm. Unfortunately I don't get to see all the tykes dressed up and banging on my door. Don't get to set up my tombstones, pumpkins, floodlights and fog machine. Unfortunate. Last year I enjoyed the fascination of the kids as they came to the door. I left a candy stash just inside the door.. in case some kids come by while we're out and a roomate answers the door. It's a sad night. I love costumes, and enjoy seeing the kids. They're adorable. Instead I get to listen to my prof talk for 3 hours, while not covering any of the course material (it fascinates me every week... he'll lecture for 3 hours on nothing related to the course... the whole course is learned from the textbook). You may ask... why do you attend class then? Well 20% of my mark comes from GROUP tests. Yes... group tests. We have one every class. We sit in our groups, we discuss the question (which is usually straight from the text) and then we write down the answer (oh.. and we can confer with other groups), with all our names. Great testing strategy. Other than that our tests are all WEBCT, meaning online, and multiple choice. Yes... I know what you're thinking... what on earth does this prof do? He doesn't have to mark anything. It's all done by computer, he doesn't really lecture.. he just stands in front of 100 students once a week and tells jokes and rattles on about different environmental projects that are going on in Alberta. I wouldn't consider him a great prof... but his actual lecture period is entertaining, just not related. So we go to class. Plus, I am one of about 5 students in the class that he knows, he would notice if I am not there. He was the prof that led the SouthWest Trip I went on this summer.

Tomorrow is a scary day. I have to present to my class for 15 minutes. All alone at the front with control of PowerPoint. It's the scariest thing for me. I feel sick, I fidget and I refuse to look at the group. I even shake. Presenting is not a good thing. The most I've ever done before is 5 minutes.. and usually that is with other people. I do know the content of my presentation thoroughly, but I am nervous that someone will ask a question. Actually in this class I know at least 5 people will ask questions. I'm scared that it'll be questions that I do not know the answer to. I am also one of the first 3 to present in this class, so I have no idea if I even approached this from the right angle. Guess we'll find out tomorrow. I already found a mistake in the handout that has been sent to the entire class already.

On the plus side, I have received 2 more orders for Christmas cards. One is a rush order that needs to be done for next week, so after tomorrow's presentation I will start in on them. :) Very exciting. There are only 55 days left til Christmas. And tomorrow you are officially allowed to decorate for Christmas. I don't think my tree will get put up for a couple weeks yet, since I have so much to do prior to that. But Christmas music is free to be played everywhere now... not just in my IPOD.

I think I should quit my rambling now. I have class again soon. This was a quick break, and I finally got another blog in.

I will leave you with the following image.....

Why me. My thoughts when I first got up this morning.

First a little history. Every year at University I have had something go wrong that is not my fault. At U of A I had problems, with registration.....(they booted me out of a class... saying I didn't have the pre-req, when I did), I had problems with my tuition (I had paid, they decided I hadn't). At LCC, I had a problem with my accomodation, they screwed up something, and I had to go and straighten it out. U of L, I NEEDED a course (required), and the class was still half empty, yet I couldn't register for it... because of my major, even though it's required for my major. It tooks like 2 months to get that one sorted out. Everything goes wrong with the Universities, I'm really fed up with it.

This morning I wake up to get an e-mail that reads "There have been changes to your registration in the last 24 hours. You are not registered in any courses". First reaction.. .maybe it's an error message. SO I log onto my registration pages, just to realize that I am not registered in any classes as of the middle of the night. Here I am in the midst of writing midterms, turning in papers... and I'm not registered in any classes?

My first question is WHY? I have no holds on my account, I have been a good diligent student, I've even determined that U of L is really a good school... I'm not holding grudges. But this. I need to sort it out. I have a scholarship dependent on me having full time status, I have a billion papers and midterms in the next few weeks, and they removed me from school.

I'm not a happy camper this morning, and I plan to go to the Registrar when they open at 9. Until then I just stew and freak out and wonder, with all the troubles Universities give me, maybe this isn't where I should be. Maybe I should just find a job.... and forget this all together.

Never get excited

One thing I've learned this week... is never get excited about something.. or it won't happen.

First... Well actually lastly... I'll go backwards. We packed our bags and were just waiting for Josh and Mike to finish a project they were working on, so that we could leave to go to Edmonton for the weekend. I was so looking forward to going, I was going to get the rest of my christmas shopping done.. maybe buy a new sweater for me. SPending the whole day at WEM. We were going to leave in about half an hour... when the phone rang. One of the girls had double booked herself, and couldn't work her shift tomorrow. Everyone else already works that day.. except one other person... who's on a varsity team - which plays this weekend, So I said I'd take the shift. I'm not going to leave her in a lurch. So josh is gone now... and I'm here. I was really looking forward to getting away.... a weekend away from roomates and stress.

I have been excited for about a month about my boss letting me sell my cards in the store. Well last night I was told that I no longer have a job after this week. They've decided to close the store. I really loved that job, but oh well.

No Job, No Cards and No Edmonton. I'm never getting excited again...

School has started.

I'm really looking forward to being done school.

Although one of my classes should be fun. Weather and Climate. I've always been fascinated with weather, loving storms and such. For the tornado in Lethbridge last year, while everyone else was running indoors. I was outside watching funnel clouds and hoping to glimpse the tornado. I was at work at the time.. so I could not go to my basement as recommended. Same is true for thunder storms. Love watching them through the window. It's just amazing the power of weather. I'm very excited about this class.

Another class that will be intereseting is my River Science class. It is a 4000/5000/7000 level course, meaning that it is undergraduates, masters students and phds all in one class. We have to adopt a river, analyze and interpret data and give a presentation to the class on our river. I have decided to do the Illecillewaet River. It will be a lot of work. There's a very large paper, and the presentation is long as well. A lot of information. I think it will take at least 2 months to gather data and another month to interpret it. Overall it will be interesting. The class is a 6 hour class once a week. We don't spend much time in the classroom, mostly on field trips.

My other classes will just be brutal. I have Analytical Chemistry (the hardest and brutalist Chemistry class that is offered at the U) and Geographical Statistical Data Analysis (or somethign like that). Both are going to be harsh.

I joined the Be-Aware club - the environmental science club. Most of the people I got to know on my trip are in the club, and more peopel from my program that I have not met. So we'll see if I actually get time to attend the events this year.

Anyway... my new battery arrived today.... I just put it in, so I'm happy. Yay for free replacements!

It's 3:15 am. I was sleeping quite nicely, maybe a little light, when I woke up to a glug, glug, glug. Now my immediate thought was, a cat knowcked over a water jug, but I didn't think there were any in the bedroom. So I crawled over to the light, turned it on. Teemo was laying on the corner of the bed, and Oakley was sniffing something on the floor. I loo only to realize that a cat had thrown up. Now the smell usually makes me throw up myself, so I cleaned it up right away (best I could without firing up the spot carpet cleaner machine), only to notice another pile. SO I cleaned that up too. I put a dirty towel over both spots (so the smell won't make me be sick before morning comes) and turned off the light only to step in yet another pile. On go the lights, and another scrubfest. Just as I was throwing that out, I see and hear Teemo loudly dry heaving, ready to deliver another. I thought it had been oakley in the bedroom, but I guess Teemo just jumped back on the bed after doing his business. And Oakley, being Oakley, had gone down there to investigate and maybe try to eat it.I shooed Teemo while he was heaving, down to the linoleum of the dining room. But it appears nothing more is coming tonight. Thankfully.

And now no sleep will come. I checked out online, and have a few ideas I may try with Teemo (such as petroleum jelly, and cutting fish out of his diet). We'll see..... he doesn't throw up often. I think this is only the 3rd event since we've had them. So it may take a while to determine if something is working. Open to suggestions.

I had begun a post about The Swadeshi Movement about 4 days ago... but never finished it.

And thus the silence of this blog continues...... but only for a little longer.

I have much environmentalism running around in my head, but I haven't had the time to put them down in my blog. I started this blog for that purpose. Now that my trip has been recapped, and my life is smoothing out, I should be able to get on here with my thoughts...... next week. :) I'm heading to Vancouver for the weekend, and will be back in 5 days. AND I WILL POST MY TREE HUGGING THOUGHTS!

And the week begins. 10 minutes and the week of no money begins. This marks the end of computer use for the week. :) I will be back next Sunday.

Today I got word of the passing of a dear family friend. He passed away on the golf course with friends. Please keep the Buchannon family in your prayers this week as this is a difficult time for them.

This week I've mainly been a housewife. Just keeping things clean around the house, sewing, and laundry. I sorted all the recycleables this week. I really need to get my compost going again. I feel bad whenever I throw out peels and such. Soon!

Next week Josh and I are doing a "Don't spend a cent" week. So that means, no TV, no car, no slurpees (Josh's indulgence), and no many other things. I think we've determined we can't go without lights and such, just because of the hours we are up. So only basics as far as electricity and water. I'm really looking forward to it. It really shouldn't be that bad. I guess we'll have to discuss computer usage. Josh's computer is important to everything he does, so I don't see how he can cut his out. But I will probably go computerless for a week as well.

After a week of work (and getting stuck, due to the lack of supplies), the room is now almost complete. Just waiting for the bed to arrive (tonight) and have to hang the shelves (which we decided to do once the bed is in there. Oh, and I need to hem the curtains, but I'll do that tonight while they assemble the bed. :) Then it will be done! I'll post pictures then! It looks so good already!

I'm barely working these days. I had 3 scheduled shift this week.. all about 4 hours. Next week I get 2 shifts. One is 4 hours one is 3.5. I don't know how I'm going to get by on such few hours. It's very frustrating, since I talked to her at the beginning of the summer, and made a decision then not to get a second job. And initially I was getting enough hours, but now I'm getting very little hours. I get 2 shifts, everyone else gets 3 shifts. Last week I got 3, and everyone else got 4. I don't get it. But whatever. She knows finances are tight right now for us as well...

Tuesday night I started on my Christmas cards! It was loads of fun. I'm getting together all my samples for this year... decide which I'm going to make. I think Josh and I decideed to do a photo tag one.

Anyway back to work around the house. I've got loads to do today, plus I work this afternoon (after 6 days of no shifts).

Tonight Josh and I prepped our bedroom for painting! :) Tomorrow I will be painting, 2 coats hopefully will be enough. If not I'll do a third coat on Friday morning before the bed arrives. We're doing a Japanese bedroom. I've got my paint colour (obviously), a bamboo rug, a platformish bed, a rock garden/candle set, two framed prints. I still need to find a duvet cover, and some curtains. :) I also need to make a print of a photo I have and get it framed.

I'm excited to finally see it coming together.

Tomorrow I will paint in the morning, go to my pedicure in the afternoon and paint again before dinner...

Well int he last week I've written 3 blog entries. Well... 3 incomplete blog entries. I just close my computer because I have to run somewhere, but decide that the info written is outdated now, soI start all over. And so... no blog entries. I really will get more entries on here to tell you all about my dull and mundane life. Well not as mundane now that I have cats. :)

Today I must clean though, as for this week only, I have no bed in the master bedroom, but it will be back either friday or saturday. SO this week is filled with cleaning and organizing the bedroom, then filling holes and cracks in the wall, and prepping the walls, then painting. Oh how I love painting. I'm getting really close to having my Japanese bedroom! :) Paint the walls, hang the pictures, put down the bamboo rug, set up my tranquil mini rockgarden/ candle set. :) I'm very excited to see it done, but I need to get the room painted and thouroughly clean before the bed arrives.

BACK TO WORK! I will come with interesting things to say very soon!

Day 21
We drove from Yosemite to Reno. Once in Reno, we didn't have a place to stay. Eventually we found a random campground well after dark. I don't know why they didn't plan ahead, it was very frustrating. We played dodgeball in a grocery store parking lot.

Day 22
We drove to Boise Idaho. We stayed in a campground right underneath some powerlines that were noisy. Other than that, I don't remember much of that day.

Day 23.
We drove to Coeur de Laine and camped there. This was our last night together so we did toasts, and had a big party. I won the cute and cuddley award. Not entirely sure why, but that's ok. :)

Day 24
We drove home to Lethbridge. We stopped in Kimberley for a while to shop.

:) WE WERE HOME!

Day 20
Hike the half-dome at Yosemite. This hike is comparable to the grand canyon. Unfortunately I didn't go all the way up. At this point in the trip I was VERY sick with a cold. It was difficult to breathe, let alone hike. I hiked to the top of the first waterfall on the trail. There was quite a number of us that were too sick to go much further. But in all honesty, I don't feel like I missed much. It would have been neat, but I got to go back, have a shower and do some laundry. Showering was quite the privilege on this trip. Sometimes we'd get to shower 2 days in a row, sometimes we'd go 5-6 days without a shower. It was all whether they were available, which often they weren't.
This night my tent group moved our tent over to a campsite with an older couple in an RV. They were very sweet. Let us use their gas stove!! HOT food! no sandwiches! It was wonderful. :) They talked about their trip to canada, and this great big dam they visited in Revelstoke, BC. :) It was a proud moment for me, peopel who know my small town. We had to move to their site because the rangers told us we had too many people in our site. They came over and offered us a spot on their site. Which was nice. We didn't have to get another one.

Day 19
This day we drove from San Fransisco to Yosemite National Park. We stopped at a couple overlooks, and it was gorgeous. It was like home for me. I wasn't as excited in Yosemite, since it was like what I had grown up around. There were some spectacular water falls, but it just wasn't that great.

The first night there, we had a bear in our campsite. It tore into one of our backpacks, and took off with another one. We had even put everything in the bear bins, including suntan lotion and toothpaste. It was kind of funny actually. One of the girls spotted the bear around 2 int he morning when she got up to use the washroom. She went in her tent, and told her boyfriend, and next thing we know there are 4 men in their boxers chasing the bear through the campground. It made for a funny story in the morning.

Day 18
This day we went hiking. We went int he morning to the Lighthouse of the Point Reyes Nataional Seashore. We then went on a hike out to the point in the afternoon. It was a really nice hike. Lots of really neat flowers that I had never seen before. But it was troublesome for me, since it was a wide and very trafficed path. It wasn't like most national parks, it was open, and very heavily used. And the part the bugged me was not that it was busy, but that people would trample everywhere, not stick to the trails. Anyway, it was a good day. :) I was quite proud, I was the 3d person done the hike. :) I was rushing so I could call Josh, but then I realized that I didn't have my calling card.

Day 17
Free day in San Fransisco. For the morning Tyler, Rob and I just toured all the piers, wandered around, watched the sea otters. Then in the afternoon it was Alcatraz! Originally I wasn't interested in going to Alcatraz, but the night before I rethought about it, and there was someone willing to sell me their ticket (since the boat was sold out). So I ended up going, and am really glad I did. It was very interesting. I didn't know much about Alcatraz before hand, all I knew was it was a prison in the middle of the ocean. Very neat tour. They give you headsets and it tells you stories of different inmates while it walked you through it.

Day 16
The Napa Valley Wine Tour
This day we toured the Napa Valley. We first stopped at a winery (which I don't remember the name of).... we spent time there, but didn't do a tasting, because it cost to much. But we looked around the shop and such. Then we went to Beringer Winery. We did tasting there (there was 2 seperate locations for tastings... one for reds and ones for whites and sweets), so we actually did two tastings there. This is the winery where I bought a fair bit of wine. Beringer was a really old and nice looking place. I've got many pictures from there. Afterwards we went to V. Sattui Winery and had a wine tasting there. We also looked around the shops. They had many really good food products (like dips and marinades and cheese). In the evening we went to the beach to watch the sunset. (sorry.. pictures are out of order..)

Ok.. I'm going to finish the trip off. I'm at work this morning, absolutely dead. It is a holiday... so I understand. :) Ok, let's finish off the trip, so that it doesn't take months to finish! I got 2 new batch of pictures from others on the trip. The pictures were from the guys with the high quality SLR cameras. But I'll stick to using my pictures for my blog. I may post a couple of my favorites of theirs later, but for now, just mine.

Day 15
This day we hiked up to a viewpoint of the San Fransisco bay. We then hiked up to some military gun positions (which the guns never were mounted in) and had a lecture up there. We also made a pit stop right on the San Andreas Fault. Well most of the area is on the fault, but we stopped at a location that had obvious evidence. We also stopped at the cliff house, and waklked around there. On our way back to camp, we stopped in Sausalito, and spent a couple hours touring the town (the boats are in Sausalito - picture). There was really cool looking indian-style house boat there. :) It was really cool and out in the bay.

The promised pictures! Oakley is the grey tabby, Teemo the orange tabby.

So I've got more exciting news! Teemo was lonely. Very lonely, he's never lived without at least 2 other cats before. Well.... yesterday we found Oakley, and we brought him home. Him and Teemo buddied up pretty quick. It brought Teemo out of his shell even more. He's a grey tabby.. and only 10 weeks old. He's very cuddly, and purrs loundly and constantly! Last night he tried to spend the night with us. Poor Josh had to work this morning, and all night Oakley was climbing all over him. SO all night I was mostly awake, fishing the cat when he got too near Josh and either pulling him over to me (which he'd stay for a while)... or put him on the floor (which he just climbed back up on the bed).

I'll post the pictures later today of both the kitties. :)

Anyone know how to keep cats eating their own food.. rather than the others? Cause Oakley is on kitten food and Teemo is on adult food, but they're both trying to eat each others.

Having being unable to meet up with my partner for the paper on our trip, I have been at it all day. He is working out of town and has had a busier schedule than planned. So we've had little time. What does this all mean.

It means I arrived at the University at 8:30 am this morning.... went home for dinner for around 6:30... and came back for 9pm. I am still here. It is 3:30am. We are plugging away. And it's not that we're writing our paper right now, we've been editing and adding references and combining our writing. It's a big mess. I probably have a few hours left to go. 3:30!!!!

Tyler drove here straight from work. He is leaving here at 4am (at the latest) in order to get to work on time in the morning. That is just crazy. I work at 10am, but I have to get the printing done and adding figures and graphs. Oh fun times.

Day 14
We spent the day in SanFransisco. Initially we explored Pier 39, and as the group grew to huge number, me and another girl split off and had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was really good. It was such a neat setting there. They have "Run Forest Run" on green license plates.. and then they also have "Stop Forrest Stop" on red ones. SO if you need service at anytime,just flip the sign and the first staff that sees it will be at your table within seconds. It was jsut all around a really neat and unique place. Their drink menu was on a table tennis paddle. Hehe. It was fun. Just outside the door they had Forrest's shoes and suitcase sitting on a bench, so you could pose with them. After that, Darby and I decided to head up town to all the shops we'd been looking forward to (Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria Secret, and many more). So we met up with one of the supervising staff, told them we were heading there.. she was concerned.. since we're supposed to be in groups of 4 or more.... but we complained, and she said it'd be ok. So we took the cable car up to Market St. and started shopping. We had lots of fun, and decided we're good shopping buddies (so now we have plans for that together). As shops were closing we walked up towards Martuini's (where we were to meet the group before 10). We reached there and sat. It was definately interesting. A karaoke bar... in San Fran.... didn't take long for many 2 man couples to come in... which was weird... then there was the guy in drag. We were sitting there wondering... is that a man or woman? It was hard to tell... but once he/she walked past us... we knew. It was just so weird. The bus driver was freaked out by all this. A couple guys in our group got hit on... it was just bizarre. I never have been happier to leave. ALthough... the nice thing about a San Fransisco bar... smoke free! I made it through that night only being sung to twice. Both by the prof overseeing the trip.

Day 13
We loaded up early and drove towards San Fransisco (along the coastal highway). It was very windy and there was a stoppage for a while. We stopped at a little tourist spot and had some coffee, and free time. Sarah annouced that she had found the location of her wedding... so we got Lindsey to fill in as the groom. :) I was the official wedding photographer for that. We then continued on. We drove right through San Fran that day, and across the Golden gate. It was a very tight squeeze in the bus... since we were in a car lane.. instead of the bus lane. But Phil is amazing and can get through anywhere! We pulled into our campground near Marin. This was our home for about 6 nights. We were a day ahead of schedule, so we got an extra night here.

Day 12
We left Palm Springs after a morning swim, and lecture. We talked about the Central Arizona Project, and California Water supplies. We then hopped on the bus and drove right through L.A. ( I was very suprised to see the downtown... it looks so unimpressive. LA is built out.. not up) and the next stop was in Malibu. We were given time to explore there, then we met on the wharf for a lecture. This was really neat. We talked about smog, and pollution, as well was waste treatment and water treatment for California. We talked about Title 22 water, and it's development. Malibu was a really neat place. Lots of surfers out on the water, and lots of fishers on the wharf. That night we camped in Morro Bay.

Here's a couple shots from Malibu:

Day 11
We packed up camp fairly early and drove to the Imperial Sand Dunes. This is featured in Star Wars... you know the big desert they walk through..... all the dunes. :) I know, I'm a geek. Anyway, we talked about movement of the dunes, where all the sand came from, as well as had a jumping contest. It was fun. We all had sand where sand does not belong. But it was just fun. We then drove and stopped along the New River, to talk more about California Water Issues, then moved on to the Saltan Sea. The Saltan Sea is a very sad story. We got off the bus and it just stunk! We walked out onto the beach and looked down. It wasn't sand. It was all just barnacles. There were dead fish along the shore. Of course we have a lecture here for about 30 minutes. Apparently there is a big restoration going on for the lake. I really hope so. So much I could say about all the damage done to this lake, but I won't go on too much on it right now. I will have my say on it in my paper. After the Saltan Sea, we stopped at a pumping station, this is a station that through pipes, pumps water OVER the mountains to California. Since there is such a shortage of water in California, they go through great expense to gather it from other states, and this is an example. Due to security, we couldn't get too close, but we managed to have a lecture roadside and see them in the distance. It's just unreal. that night we camped in Palm Springs in a Campground that was like an Oasis (it had showers!!). Just kidding, it had an amazing pool area, lots of animals, like 6 hot tubs, saunas, laundry. It was a really neat and gorgeous place.
Pic #1 - Saltan Sea
Pic #2 - Palm Springs Pool Area
Pic #3 - Sunset at Campground

Day 10
That morning we loaded on the bus and drove to the Mexican border. There we walked across. It was weird, they don't check ID, in fact there's not even any officials there. It was just weird. ANyway, we got in started browsing through shops. We were told to stay in groups of at least 4.... but preferably more. This was the most frustrating thing. Since no one in a group could agree on where they wanted to go.. some were spending far too long at each shop and such. I was just grumpy and frustrated. I ended up going back to the U.S. for the 1pm bus back to camp. I mean it was just so frustrating. I did pick up my Tequila on the way (which turned out to be nasty, and I pawned it off on the last night of the trip.. I shouldn't have bought the cheapest bottle). Anyway. I wish I had actually bought a hammock while there. They were so cheap and Josh always says how much he wants one. Anyway, there was about half the group that went back on the early bus. We went back and hung out by the pool, played some shuffleboard and such. It was the most wonderful afternoon. No regrets in cutting Mexico short at all. In fact, I have no desire to even go back to Mexico. That night a few of us went out to Applebees for dinner. It was so good. It was a first for all of us. Then we walked back to camp and enjoyed an evening playing more shuffleboard. No pictures this day.... I did take one of the bus, but I won't be adding it here.

Day 8
Today was uneventful, we packed up in the morning, had showers, did laundry (our first time) and hit the road mid day. We drove to Lake Pleasant, getting in after dark. We had reservations, and couldn't find the site, then some guy in a golf cart with a very bright flashing light led us to the day use area.... so we set up there. He came back and said it was the wrong spot (NO kidding!), but said we could stay. So we set up. It was dark, we could hear the lake. We didn't set up tents that night, it was our first night under the stars.

Day 9
I woke up as the sun was rising (I got a picture right from my sleeping bag!).... The lake was gorgeous. I then looked around and there were Saguaro Cactus plants EVERYWHERE. It was amazing. So I quietly got up, and there were a couple other people up, so I got one of them to come for a walk. We went and got some pictures in the cacti. It was great. I've never seen them before and it was exciting to wake up and be surrounded by them. Didn't even notice them the night before. There was lots of exciting news in the morning. Apparently some coyotes had been within about 30 feet of us, and we found several scorpions in the campsite. No incidences though. We packed up and drove to Yuma that day!

Day 7 (May 3rd)
Today was the day I conquered all! I hiked the Grand Canyon. I was quite pleased with myself at the end of the day. It meant a lot for me. I now feel that my knee is strong enough to do anything!! Well the hike down was good, all down hill so it hurt the knees a fair bit. But everyone's knees were the same. We had lunch in the Indian Gardens. We met a group from SFU there, a bunch of Geology students. They had 1 girl and the rest guys, so the girl broke off from her group to hang out with us for the rest of the hike. She said it was awesome, since she was tired of being "one of the guys". She was a sweet girl. Anyway, we saw the mules come down while we were there. So we went out to the point to see everything, then came back to the Gardens. It was hot! Very hot. :) We then started our climb around noon. The climb out was tiring, and very sore. Jenny and I stuck together, and only about 3 pairs of our group passed us. It was a long hike out. You just kept looking up and being like "oh my! all the to go still..... I should just camp here". But then you'd look down and be like, "wow, I climbed all that so far...." It was horrible climbing out. I have to admit, I was grumpy and complaining the whole way out. We got near the top and saw Sam started to go down (he had been sick and unable to hike.... which for him was devastating). He had decided to go down a little bit... since he was feeling better. Anyway... once I finally got out of the canyon... which seemed like forever we were all going to meet at the Pub for dinner... so we went there, and before going in, I called Josh. I was proud I had done it. Once in the pub, I sat for about 45 minutes, had a burger and when I stood up to go back to camp..... I wasn't sore, I felt completely energetic.. it was great! That night we had a few drinks around the bus.... we didn't light a fire.. so we hung out by the light of the storage compartments of the bus. I must admit. I did go to bed early. It was a good day, and got me over a lot of the cautions I had with my knee!

Pic #1-From the top of the Canyon
Pic #2-Mules coming into Indian Gardens
Pic #3-Picture from Midway in canyon
Pic #4-Picture of Colorado River from inside the Canyon
there were many more pictures, but we'll leave it at these.

Day 6
Day 6 we went for a swim in Lake Powell. We then went to the Glen Canyon Dam, where someone gave us all sorts of information on Lake Powell, the dam and the Colorado River. She knew a lot more than the average worker, since she actually wasn't an employee of the dam. She told us lots of the Environmental issues with the dam, and how the native fish are endagered due tot he fact that the dam regulates the river temperature at too low of a temperature. It was really neat that she was able to share with us the nagatives of the dam. We also watched a video there, and then piled on the bus. On our drive that day we drove by "Hole-in-a-Rock"... "Mexican Hat" and that evening we camped at the Grand Canyon (which we went to the lookout to check it out at sunset). That night was very subdued and everyone went to bed early. The next day was the big hike.
Glen Canyon Dam:

Day 5
We started the day with a lecture on Arches national Park, it's geology and such, then drove to Newspaper Rock (another set of petroglyphs), then visited Gooseneck of San Juan River. It was really neat to see how the river carved into the plateau! :) Anyway, Day 5 was a very educational day, but was fun also. I also remember it being super hot. It was lovely! We camped at Lake Powell that night.

Pic #1- Newspaper Rock
Pic #2- Gooseneck on San Juan River

I finally got links and a picture in here, and updated things. If you're a reader, let me know your link, and I'll add it. :)

I have to interrupt the trip tour with news. We invited a new individual into our family this week. His name is Teemo and he is 9 months old. :) He's very adorable. He's very timid, and has spent most of his time hiding, but he is getting used to me, and has even come in the same room as me. He was a ferral cat, rescued at about 6 weeks I believe. He was in a foster home for a few months, where he got a bit of socializing, but due to an illness, he didn't get as much as he needed. He then went to PAWS where he's been for 5 months. Poor guy. He's been making leaps and bounds there, they say. Anyway, we brought him home with us on Saturday. He spent all of that day hidden inside his litterbox. But once we were watching a movie we heard him exploring a little bit (his bell on his collar). Then we saw little ears peek up over the stairs. But he quickly scampered away when we looked. Yesterday he got a little bit closer, but if we moved he bolted. Today he actually came into the bedroom while I was there and sat about 3 feet away. He was very tense. But he's getting used to me. :) I"m very excited. Soon I hope he is brave enough to come right up to us, and let us cuddle with him. He'll let me pet him when he's hiding..... but is very tense. As soon as we're in bed at night though he really roams around. It's really cute. Last night he actually spent most of the night just outside our bedroom door (which was open a crack). :) It's nice to hear his bell, since the first day he barely moved. We're still waiting for him to use the litter box (I've heard his digging in it.... but there haven't been any gifts left behind), and to eat... he hasn't eaten that much since he's been here. We do know he has found his dish and he's had a little bit here and there. He's making such progress though, so we're excited that he'll make good progress with us! Meet TEEMO!

Day 4
All day hike in the Devil's garden. This hike was one of the best hikes. We saw so many arches this day. We were at the trail head around 7:30 I believe, and came back around dinner time. We totally explored everywhere. We climbed on the fins, and on top of arches, and through crevaces. It was lots of fun! That evening we went to Windows Arches for sunset. That was amazing! Afterwards was an evening at camp, we just hung out, played some games, had a fire, and just chatted. So pictures of the 4th day. I think I took over 100 pictures this day... so here are a few highlights.

Pic #1 - Rob hiking up a fin
Pic #2 - End view of fins - shows the geology quite well
Pic #3 - Sitting over top of an arch
Pic#4 - Dark Angel - also referred to as Bob's Knob, but U of L students
Pic#5 - Double O arch - really neat... was able to climb up onto the 2nd arch
Pic #6 - Whole group sitting on top of an arch
Pic #7 - Landscape arch - won't be there that much longer
Pic #8 - Sunset from sitting in the South Window Arch
Pic #9 - Turet Arch shortly after sunset