Back On Track

So I'm back on track for this week, as far as Wednesday emails go. Really it's just because I had an exam yesterday and so no Chem homework right now.

Okay, so some of you may have heard but I know some of you may not have. And I know Tom is just waiting for the email to get to this, so I'll just say it now.

Bum bum bum!!!

Tom and Crystal have gotten engaged.

It happened on Saturday. He proposed during the seventh inning at the Rockies game. The ring is very, very shiny. And big rocks. If you want better descriptions, call me when I'm awake. Or just hassle him for pictures. I would go with the latter, personally.

They've set April 28th, I think, as the date. So mark your calendars. I have no idea what time or where, but they've got a year to figure that part out and tell us.

The two loves birds have also been working long and hard on making Tom's backyard more than a sand pit. The link below is a link to some pictures of the work. They plan on taking pictures after every day they work on it, so you might want to chcek back every once in awhile to see what's new.

http://www.halfbyte.net/temp/landscaping/

What else is new? Well, I got my new laptop! Oh yes, and she's a cute little thing. For those of you who understand and care, she's a IBM Thinkpad, 1400x1050 Screen, 80GB harddrive, 1.5GB RAM, about 3 hours battery life and light as a feather. She's lighter than my Chem book. Maybe even my health book, which is saying a lot. Oh, I love her dearly, if you can't tell. I'm typing on her now. I can bring her to work and play on her. Soooo much better than that old office computer.

See, the general plan is that this summer I take her with me to North Carolina to work on her. And then, next year, I can tote her between campus and the place I'll be staying at. Place I'll be staying at, that's a long title. Can you all understand what I mean when I say Vinna's? Or Catlin's? That I mean that's where I'm living next year? Well, I hope so cause that's how I'm refering to it from now on. But anyway, yes, my little baby is the apple of my eye right now.

Okay! So aside from engagements and new laptops, what else has happened? Um, let's see. Um, yeah, can't think of anything, really. Oh, so I've attached some pictures that I've been promising for weeks. And now I'm going to read my health book and take a final in that, I think.

Bored and Tired,
Tar

Yeah, So I'm Lazy

I'm lazy because this is the second week I've put off sending this out till Thursday. I dunno why, it's just easier to do this on Thursdays. Something about less homework or something.

Anyway, this week has been kinda exciting. There's been Whole Foods, haircuts, Easter eggs, Gingerbread houses, longboarding, and laziness. I'm gonna warn you that this email is probably going to be terribly short. I just don't really have it in me today, maybe I'm too tired.

I think, though, that the most exciting thing that can be mentioned is that Tirrel cut Beth's hair again. Short. We're talking boy haircut short. And is it ever cute! I'll try and get a picture, along with those that I promised last week. It was done mostly because Cox had Tirrel buzz his head yesterday in the middle of our hall, on my tarp, and Beth decided she wanted summer short hair too. About two hours later, Beth had a considerable amount of hair on the floor. I must admit, I am jealous. I want short hair so bad, even more so after having to deal with these long locks for so long, but I know I'll never look as cute as Beth does. How sad.

Um.. Whole Foods is mentioned because while I have known of it for quite sometime, I had never really been there before. Friday night we spent a full hour at whole foods, trying all the samples, and determined that while it is pricey, it is also very good. So yeah, Whole Foods.

I hope you all had a great Easter, I know I did. I enjoyed sleeping in and a day of complete and utter laziness. Everyone else was home for the weekend, so I enjoyed the hall to myself. I did convince the girls to dye Easter eggs with me on Friday night, and I still have one on my desk which I intend to keep till it begins to smell.

Gingerbread houses is mentioned because last night the girls (Beth and Rachel) and I entered a Gingerbread competition. We won, of course, for our beautiful house. The theme of the competition was International, so we made an Asian house, complete with lanterns, patio-decks, koi pond, zen garden, kanji, and bamboo trees. Oh yeah, it was awesome. It's still on display in the dining center, so maybe I'll take a picture of it and send it along when I manage to get the rest of the pictures up.

Longboarding refers to the several days and afternoons I've committed to longboarding lately. Sunday afternoon I went for a nice long ride, and I must say I'm getting pretty good. I find it easier to ride barefoot then with shoes, so my feet are a little sanded, but I think overall I'm doing better then most. I went riding with Catlin on Monday and it was going well until she fell. She's alright, just some scrapes on her knees and shins, and she reopened a scrape on her one knee, but she's a tough kiddo. Walked all the way back to the house after her fall. Did all the wound-cleaning and stuff herself (with a little coaxing, mind you), so yeah, overall she's a tough cookie.

Okay, so I didn't cut it short, but I do still feel like I short-changed you all cause I just don't feel I've put as much detail and what-not into it. We'll see if next week's is better, but I have a feeling they're going to get worse because finals are coming. That makes it sound like their monsters or something, huh? Well they are. They are..

Love, Peace, and Goldfish are YUMMY,
Tar

Day Late and A Day Awake

Okay, so I'm sorry I didn't send this out last night, but I wasn't working, so I didn't have the time to do it. My mommy was in town and I traded shifts so that I could spend time with her and not worry about having to get up at 2. That and I kinda wanted to see what it would be like to actually be awake for a Discrete Structures exam.

Alright, so first thing's first, let's all welcome Vinna (and probably Chris and Catlin) to this little email list. Vinna is the woman who has so graciously offered to let me live in her home for the next few years. That and hang out with her daughter (there's that whole babysitting and nanny thing, too, but who's counting that?). Second thing, the shift key is a bit funny this morning, so I'm warning you now for those kinda typos.

Um, let's see. I think I'll frist send out a music recommendation to all you music lovers out there. I have a feeling a lot of you will enjoy this site, given to me by Tom. The URL is www.Pandora.com and the general idea of the site is to create personal radio stations that get you in touch with more of the music you love by new artists. You simply sign-up (it's free, of course) and then select an artist or song title that you want your station to sound like. The site will then play you a ton of music that is like what you wanted, and you can rate the songs as you go. If you rate a song as 'liked', they'll play more like it. If you rate it as 'don't like' they won't play it again or anything like it. So far this morning I've been introduced to three new artists that I like and think worthy of CD purchase. So there ya go.

I've been trying to think what happened in the last week that was exciting, and I know something did happen. I just can't for the life of me remember. I know Wednesday we went skating and I played the arcade games more than anything. Thursday I slept and can't really remember what I did that night.

Friday I went home for my b-day (yes, it was my b-day) and had dinner at PF Chang's with Tom, Crystal, Tim and Mom. It was a very good dinner and thanks to Tom, I now have the world's longest Suduko puzzle. 21 feet. We'll see how far I get on it this summer. I also purchased the new Kingdom Hearts video game. I love it.. if only I had more time to play. I logged 10 hours last weekend, but I haven't played since Sunday morning. Saturday I slept in (oh it felt SO good) and hung out with my Mom. Sunday I drove back up and then played tour guide for some junior high school students and their mom. It was an enjoyable evening, and I've been told my tour is better than the one CSU provides. What can I say? I believe in showing you the real college experience, golf in the courtyard of Corbett and all.

Monday I went to class. Tuesday, Mom came up and took Donovan and I to dinner. And she bought me a longboard for my b-day. Whahaha. I haven't died yet on it, but I've come close, I must admit. It's a very good board and I'm just not used to riding on one that has such loose trucks. Becca's (the one I've been riding up and down the hall) turns nicely but not nearly as easy as mine. It's taking some time to get used to the better turning radius. We also visit Vinna's and Mom saw where I will be living, and met Vinna and Catlin. I'm assuming it was a good meeting because Vinna and my Mom talked for about half an hour? I can't remember how long, I just know it was a good long conversation.

Um, yesterday I went to class and actually managed to stay awake for it all. Had dindin with Mom again (thank you, again) and did some homework. Then, the girls and I went to a sneak preview of American Dreamz. I don't think I've laughed that hard at a new movie in a long time. It was great. I must warn, it is a parody on Bush, American Idol, Arabs, and America in general. In other words, don't watch it unless you're open minded and have a sense of humor.

Dum, dum. I have no idea what else to write. Sorry this isn't up to par with my normal emails, but I can promise pictures in next week's (Rachie got two rolls developed this week, I just haven't scanned them in yet).

So yeah (can you tell I like that phrase this morning), I'm going to read! Yeah... Eldest is a great book. So addicting...

Love, Peace, and When was the last time I signed like this?
Tar

Extra Crunchy Morning

I'm so disappointed in all of you. No one was able to guess where last week's title came from. It probably didn't help that the title was not sung.. but, yeah. All of you Moulin Rouge fans should be ashamed of yourselfs. Now, to try and redeem yourselfs, someone should tell me why I titled the email as such today. Hint: I had an apple this morning, along with something else.

Alrighty!! I tell you what, this week has been exciting! But before I get into that, this is a HUGE shout out to Nanny Gail, who has responded to every email I've sent out in the last month and a half. See? And you said no one read this things... Pfft.

Anyway, this last week. Well, I'll start with what happened first, which of course would be classes. Now, I've attached a scanned copy of my notes from my 8am class last Wednesday. You might laugh, but that little dude is everywhere on my notes for that class. He really likes to show up on Wednesdays, usually with coffee in hand. I decided to scan him in and attach him today because 1) I know you love to get pictures, and 2) so that you folks and see what I really do in class. The really funny thing is, half the time he ends up on my notes, I don't remember putting him there. I think that's what I'm doing while I'm zoning out, honestly.

After my little alter ego appeared on my notes, I of course went through the rest of my Wednesday, taking a nice long nap around noon and then doing homework and going skating later that night. This week's skating session was a lot more enjoyable considering that Cox came with us. Which reminds me of another thing that happened Wednesday. Now, most of you don't know this, but Rachel, Beth and I all live on the first floor in the last rooms on our hall. We are quite used to people coming up to our windows to talk to us. I've often given Donovan answers to karate class questions through mine. Well, Cox stopped by Wednesday afternoon to say hi and make sure we were still on for skating. Sadly for him, some cops were driving by and saw him. You guessed it, Cox got stopped by the cops while running around to the other side of the building to talk to me through my window. We eventually noticed and got him off the hook, but not before he was questioned and held up by the police. If you knew Cox, you would know how sad and utterly hilarious the whole thing was, because while he looks a bit creepy (balding 20 year old with light orange hair), he's actually the sweetest guy we know. The really funny thing is, Fish got stopped by a cop later in the week for trying to get into our hall by tailing people. I got him off the hook, but it was still really funny to see him stopped for something he's done ALL YEAR long.

So that was Wednesday. Thursday I went and hung out with Catlin, the little girl that I will be a nanny for next semester. Yeppers, I got the live-in nanny job, thank you very much to Aunt Jeannie and Amy. I know some of you are still a bit concerned about it, but don't worry! Mom is going to meet the mom and Catlin next week and we're writing a contract so that I don't get taken advantage of. All in all, it should be a very awesomely good thing.

Um, let's see. I can't really remember anything else big, except that I saw V for Vendetta on Saturday night. Holy Cow. That movie is just plain awesome. It made me wanna read 1984 again, that's for sure. I don't recommend it to those under 16, or those of us who don't normally go to movies, but everyone else should go see it. I know one thing, I'm gonna buy it when it comes out on DvD.

Alright, last thing, I swear. I just want to tell you guys about my ultimate college experience last night. It was a beautiful day yesterday, so in the afternoon the girls and I decided to go and throw a frisbee around. We were out there for about 15 minutes before three guys came up and asked to join us. We of course said yes and expanded our circle. About 10 minutes later, one of the guy's wives showed up and joined us. 5 minutes after that, Cox rode by on his bike and we yelled for him to join us. Within 30 minutes of setting out, we had 9 people, 4 of them strangers, playing with 2 frisbees out on the IM fields until the sun set and it was too cold to continue playing barefoot. That, my friends, is the true college experience. It's not the classes, you can take those anywhere. College is about the social setting. It's about complete strangers sitting around a coffee shop talking about anything together. It's about that random guy that just started talking to you in class after about half a semester, just because he wanted to know what you always listened to. It's about an unscheduled hockey game everyday around 6 between strangers. It's about spray painting your pants out by the bike rack. It's about riding up and down your hall on longboards and $10 Walmart skateboards. It's about going to Best Buy an hour before it closes just to play the video games. It's about concerts out on the West Lawn. It's about people drawing, preaching, handing out flyers, and running for office out on the Plaza. It's about frisbee on the IM fields until your toes are numb.

Tar