Pretty!

In Wausau there was 8.5 inches of snow fall in less than 24 hours!
Happy Holidays from the Farm



P.S. I have no clue who's car that is in the first one, so please don't do anything stupid or mean.

Power is Back!

Whoo! Power is back! I have light at night time, and head all the time again! Unfortunately, going without power for 2, almost 3 days has done bad things to my poor fish. This afternoon they were in a pitiful condition, the water was probably about 48 or so degrees, so I fished out the fish, and tried to warm them up. I've lost my catfish - fare well Jet Li II - but I was just waiting to give him away to Andy anyhow. (He'd gotten too big and too aggressive for my tank. He kept attacking and eating my other fish.) My four black skirts, and one blue paradise gouriami seem to be reviving quite nicely. I'm worried they'll turn ill due to temperature shocks - it is now 82 degrees and it's only been 5 hours since I took them out of the 48 degree water. Knowing my luck with cold fish, they'll all get ick and die.

I didn't manage to find my plecostomos when I fished them out, and I haven't seen him for the past day and a half, so I don't know how he's doing or if he's even doing, but hopefully he's just hiding, and he'll warm up, and make his way out shortly.

Apparently, my laptop battery didn't like the constant bursts of energy and not, it's dying, or dead, either way, it sucks. It even popped up with a "time to reorder" (aka - give us some money or your laptop is useless) signal. It's loosing about a percent of battery life every couple of seconds. So, I'm off before it dies. Hope your finals have gone well, or will go well.

Good luck everyone, and stay warm & away from trees. I'll be posting some damage report pictures shortly.

Later,
~Liz~

Oh, not quite done with finals, will be done by Thursday & a work party on Friday so we should party on Saturday afternoon!

Puzzle

Welcome to Advent

Futurama News!!

Bender's Big Score is coming out (straight to DVD) on November 27th, so get yourself a copy. Show some support for Futurama returning in full after many years of not making anything new.

In other Futurama news: There are three more movies (in addition to the above mentioned) planned to come out soon. Also, starting in 2008 Futurama will be moving to Comedy Central, where it will be joined by an aditional 13 NEW! Episodes!

Thought you might be intested.

Later,
~Liz~

OMG!!

This looks like sooo much fun. I can't wait for it to be out. It is definitely going to be one of my games from my 101 list.

No more Bunnies. : (

Hazel had to be put to sleep on Friday, so now there aren't anymore bunnies. She had Muscular disintegration disease - apparently it's pretty common in older rabbits. She was 9 and a half years old, and was a good bunny. I will miss her very much, but I feel better about putting her to sleep than letting her continue to live while all her muscles slowly stop working.

Another from the List

I update my Orb (see right corner) the lovely green thing there. It's actually a really awesome program. I highly suggest getting connected with this thing. It is uber funness. You can do so much great stuff with it. As long as you have your computer on, you can listen to all of the music on your computer on any other computer. The list to the right is my shared list. It has over 650 songs on it, including the new Linkin Park CD, and The Plain White T's CD on it. You can't download from it, but you can listen to them and arrange them and stuff like that. I also added the My Chemical Romance CD, and the Pirates of the Caribbean bonus CD thingy from the second movie.

Hope ya'll enjoy,
~Liz

Malaria Kills

Just thought I'd post this in case some one was interested. I decided to donate to the charity NothingButNets for this month's charitable giving. It is headed by the NBA, the UN, the UMC, and SportsIllustrated. Basically, malaria is still killing more people in Africa than anything else - even AIDs. So they ask that you donate money to their cause. $10 buys one bed net for a family - parents, kids, and infants. It's a good cause, and makes it easy to make a big impact with only $10.

~Liz

101 Things to do in 1001 Days.

Okay, so I guess you guys haven't been writing enough to keep me occupied. I have acquired a new blog that I read fairly regularly, it is called Get Rich Slowly, and recently had this blog on it talking about 101 Things to do in 1001 Days, and this got me thinking... what are my goals? What do I really want to accomplish. After reading over J.D. Roth's blog containing his list, I decided I should make my own. I really liked the way he had his set up, so don't be surprised to see mine is very similar.

Health:
1) Get on a regular exercising schedule & make it a habit (at least 28 days on the schedule in a row)
2) Lose 10 pounds - or at least enough to make myself feel good about bikini weather.
3) Drink only water for 1 whole month.
4) Eat 'in' for every meal for 1 whole month.
5) Eat Breakfast - at least 4 weeks straightAll Jan.-Mar. 2008
6) Visit the doc and get the thyroid checked. Dec. 2007

Entertainment:
7) Purchase 2 more games for the Wii.GH3, Wii Fit, & some random party game
8) Enjoy Hawaii! 7/20/07
9) See Pirates: At World's End and not be late for work the next day. 5/25/07

Animals:
10) Get 29 gallon set up and running with fish in it. 7/7/07
11) Adopt a puppy.
12) Train the puppy to sit, lay, roll over, shake, heel and stay.

Education:
13) Know where I want to go and be well on the way. (Hopefully even graduate)
14) Maintain a 3.0 or above GPA
15) Stand out rather than blending in in class.
16) Limit the skipped classes to 3 or less per class per semester.

Financial:
17) Do not go into debt in Hawaii. 7/20/07
18) Build up a 'slush fund' of at least $200 dollars. Aug. 2007
19) Compound Interest!!!
20) Go one whole month with no impulse buys.
21) Use only cash for 2 months straight.
22) Give at least $10/month to charity or good cause of my choice for at least 12 months straight.
23) Adopt a child for JHS Christmas. Dec. 2007
24) Start a ROTH or some sort of investment fund containing $500 or more. Dec. 2007

Food:
25) Learn at least 5 complete meals.
26) Learn 10 new drink recipes.
27) Invent a drink.
28) Start a cookbook of favorite recipes. fall 2007
29) Get at least 40 recipes in Favorite Recipes Cookbook
30) Learn how to decorate a cake.
31) Partake in a wine tasting gathering.June '08
32) Tour at least 3 vineyards.

General Betterment:
33) Complete Hitchhiker's Guide book.
34) Return book to Sean. (just for you)
35) Send Grandma a birthday card w/$5 bill in it.
36) Watch The Godfather
37) Watch Born Identity 8/6/07
38) Learn a word a day for at least a month.
39) Crochet potholder for relative/GG
40) Finish scarves
41) Get 2 matching tires on my car. June 2007
42) Watch Futurama movie Nov. 27, 2007
43) Go sailing
44) Try an Alton Brown Good Eats recipe Nov. 2007 (it didn't go off very well, I think I did something wrong.)

Misc.
45) Go Snorkeling 7/20/07
46) Go 88 cent kiting.
47) Hike up a mountain (and back down again).
49) Clean out wardrobe and donate or trash anything that isn't worn anymore. My closet looks huge now!
50) Find hospital to donate stuffed animals to.
51) Learn how to make a good coffee drink with espresso machine.
52) Go to a day spa.
53) Get a message.
54) Increase wardrobe with business/ nice clothes. Fall 2007. Still working on this, but I certainly have a good start.
55) Go without whipped cream for 40 days. (Eeek... maybe I shouldn't have written that.)
56) Purchase / acquire GPS.
57) Find great Fedora or golf cap. 2007 - I've decided I'm living this one vicariously through Richard.
58) Finish this list.
59) Learn HTML (or a good share of it)

UPDATED 5/26/07
Personal goals:
What can I say? These are personal.
7 Goals in this section.
Finished 2.

ADDED 5/27/07
67) Go swimming this summer. 7/20/07
68) Reduce Spending. I hope for this to be ongoing.
69) Learn how to make chocolate truffles I don't know why this was on there, I already know how to make chocolate truffles.
70) Finish CD thingy
71) Enjoy the summer Summer 07
72) Clean out my car Aug. 07 - already dirty again though
73) Continue to add to the savings / investments
74) Sell some of my text books
75) Breakdown and either purchase or make pillows for my storage seat thingy.Check.
76) Update my Orb.June 17th, 2007
77) Learn enough about saltwater tanks that I'm comfortable setting one up. Dec. 2007
78) Set up a saltwater tank - even if it's just a 10 gallon one.
79) Get my Dyson fixed.
80) Work on Confidence, and Assertiveness. 2007 - I feel, finally, like I've got this fairly well under control.
81) Purchase Hotels / interisland flights before June 15th, 2007 June 2007
82) take a break.
83) make it to farmer's market more regularly. 2007, prob. again each year.
84) Get tv tuner for lappy Late Aug. 2007

Education (again for this semester):
87) Know where I want to go and be well on the way. (Hopefully even graduate)
88) Maintain a 3.0 or above GPA
89) Stand out rather than blending in in class.
90) Limit the skipped classes to 3 or less per class per semester.

91)Finish star mural
92) Rearrange room
93) Get new calendar before January is over. It's The Office for 2008
94) Get hair cut
95) Rearrange closet
96) Watch Juno
97) Move fish back to 10 gal.Decided to repopulate 30 gallon instead.
98)Learn about real estate to where I'm comfortable buying some.
99)Change or somehow fix fan/light
100)Get computer warranty renewed. This didn't, & isn't going to happen. It's almost cheaper to just buy a new computer!
101)Spoil me when necessary





Published: 5/20/07
1001st day falls on February 14th, 2010.

Last updated: 6/2/08
Days remaining: 622
Number remaining: 37 + 5

No Pants Day and other Holidays

Okay, so I happened up on this article today. I'm very disappointed that I didn't know about it sooner. It sounds like it would have been fun.

Oh well.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

Haiku

Haiku inventing,
count numbers: five, seven, five.
poem is created.

Little can't be said
in seventeen syllables
that needs to be heard.

I considered (the).
Seven word science fiction
but Haiku fell out.

My Heart Bleeds

As posted on Blarg!:
An over-reacting society has been created (again) overnight. Unfortunately, this leads to problems for anyone who worries too much and is blind. While the heightened security is appreciated by most everyone who attends or knows someone attending the university, perhaps they should focus their efforts more on teaching students to relieve anger and stress in a more appropriate way rather than teaching them to cower in fear in their dorm rooms because someone may have been spotted with a dangerous yoga mat or an umbrella on a rainy day. I don't mean this to read that we should not be afraid of a maniac with a gun, but to read that things may have been blown a bit out of proportion. It is not a pleasant truth to live with the fact that a shooting occurred, but it will be even less pleasant to live with the aftermath if we live our lives as if such a horrific event is an imminent threat. My heart bleeds for the friends and families of those taken on the 16th, however I do not believe that jumping to conclusions or living in fear is a good way to pay our respects to them.

THIS IS REAL

Everything is fine. Nothing is ruined.

Trends

Alright, so I'm working on getting my blog all cleaned up and everything, trying to get tags and labels on as much as I can.

General trends:

I tend to talk a lot about nothing.
I usually have at least one comment.
Most of the times I rant it's about bad customer service, or alcohol, or alcohol consuming co-worker
People take me more seriously than I do
A good number of my random "update" posts include fish / animals
More often than not, they include the fact that I've lost fish.
Many of my posts are just way too early in the morning
Almost all of my posts are just before I go to sleep.
Nearly every post from school last year included a test, or some amout of high level stress.


Okay, that's about all I can remember right now.


On a different note, my tulips have buds, and will actually bloom!!! and Ferdinand - my pretty fighting fish committed suicide by getting stuck in the peace lily in his jar with him. He some how managed to literally get tangled up in the middle of the roots. Anyhow, so you will not be seeing him around anymore. I'm just gonna put the plant in some soil, so it can get some nutrients again.

I also have a question for anyone out there who might know the answer:
I would like to have fruit/veggie/herb plants for this spring/summer. My question is how do you know which ones to get? I mean, I have one 6 inch pot let still to put something into, and after that I need to buy more pots. I definitely want tomatoes, and strawberries, chives, and basil, and beyond that, I'm not really sure. I've heard that strawberry planters are really good for herbs, but I was wondering if anyone knows about doing it in a window planter. Also, are there any other veggies that grow well in pots. I was thinking beans, pole beans, but if I remember right they need full light, and I can only give, at most half a day of light.

I'd like to do more fun stuff like carrots, and mellons, but I simply don't have the space for them. I've been toying with the idea of lettuce but I don't know how that works at all, it's one of the few plants we never grew on the farm. The plants can grow where my tulips are now, so they can stay inside if necessary. Anyhow, so any help you can give me for that would be great.

Thanks,
~Liz~

Freedom of Speech - Yay!

Alright, I don't do this very often, but I am going to review a news article today. This news article in fact: Egypt Blogger Jailed for Insults - by the BBC. That's probably a bit of a misnomer. I'm not really going to review the article, I'm more just gonna state a few facts, and probably leave it at that.

Basically, this guy from Egypt got put into prison in Egypt - duh - for criticizing the President, and Islam on his blog. Of course, the Human Rights people are going nuts, and the Bloggers of Egypt are upset. The really sad fact of it all is that this guy was 22 years old. That's about the average for most people reading this right now. He wasn't the only person to be arrested and tried for this, but so far, he is the only person who has been found guilty, and punished. For this, he is getting 3 year of prison for criticizing Islam, and an additional 1 year for criticizing the President.

This is the point at which I am very grateful for being in America. In my mind, I had never really considered Egypt as a place where people don't get the same rights as we do here, actually, I suppose I'd never though of it. It's kind of a wake up call though, for all members of the Blogosphere out there though.

Anyhow, that's all for me tonight.

Over and out,
~Liz~

The Great Tiramisu Quest!

We went out to eat at Johnny Carino's last wednesday, and I've wanted Tiramisu since. I've finally given up, and decided that I need tiramisu. So last night I went by Target to get some; all they have is frozen tiramisu. You have to thaw the thing for 6 HOURS! So I decided to prolong it, and see if I couldn't find something more immediate.

No dice with dinner, they don't serve tiramisu when you don't go out to eat. : (

So today, after work I decided I'd give it another go, but I got distracted by my mother (as I was over at the parents' house looking after Hazel). So eventually, we go to Which Wich. Again, no dice!

Will I ever get that delicious Tiramisu?

Sean had a thought to check at New York. No soup for me. Also no tiramisu for me. Again, I ask you, will I ever get that delicious Tiramisu???

So life goes on, with not tiramisu melting in my mouth or filling my belly. : ( We watch a movie, the whole time, the need for that delicious layered cake with it's smooth creaminess haunts me.

I go drop of R by his place.

"Tiramisu! Tiramisu!" My stomach is shouting at me. When the hell did my stomach learn to shout? I ponder this breifly, but figure - if it learned to shout, and is just now shouting at me, this tiramisu must be important.

The quest continues!

To the West side Wal*Mart. Silly floor waxer guy is totally in the way blocking off the entire cake/brownie cooler thingy near the deli. "Tiramisu!"

Am I the only one that hears it shouting?

"Tiramisu!"

Alright, alright, chill out a minute.

I go to the freezer section in search of anything resembling tiramisu. No fish for me. To the back in the desert aisle? No cookies for me. Damn, I'm getting no where.

"Tiramisu! Tiramisu!"

'Hush up,' I tell it, ' you're gonna drive me nuts.'

At this point I noticed that the stalker guy is looking at me like I am nuts, so I slip out of sight, search the rest of the store, and give up.

Hmmm... "Tiramisu!"

Driving down Main st. Guess I'll stop by the East side walmart. "Tiramisu!"

Repeat most of the previous store's questing, however, this time the front cake case thingy isn't blocked off. I search, frantically for the tiramisu. None! None in the entire freakin' store! No tiramisu for me.

At this point it is nearly 2 in the morning, and I can no longer search for I must sleep and any other store that would have tiramisu is not open.

I have decided that my stomach is much too demanding though, and am trying to figure out if it is specifically my stomach or if perhaps it is getting coaching from my taste buds as well. At least they would have a reason to know how to talk.

Anyhow, so tomorrow the great tiramisu quest shall continue.

Till then, this Liz, over and out.

"TIRAMISU!"

And then there was one.

Alright, quick up date on the bunny. On Monday (last week), Puff was put to sleep. Today we received a card in the mail from the clinic at which she was put to sleep stating how sorry they were for our loss. I don't really know what to think of that, but oh well. I'm not so much broken up about it, because I know it was the right thing to do for her, and that she has had a considerably long and happy life. (Not to mention lazy and pampered life.) Mom seems much more broken up by it than I am. She swears she will never have another pet because it's too hard to deal with losing them. I personally think that it's worth it in the end. Hazel seems to be doing alright with out Puff. I don't know if she realizes that Puff isn't coming back yet, but she's doing fine. She's getting pampered more than ever now, gets to run around the gameroom, and get prunes more often, and treats more often.

On a happier note! I got flowers!!! Micky gave me flowers! And they're super pretty. They're some kind of lilly, and they're very pretty. They started out with just two blooms, but now all but one are open, and they're really really pretty, and they're making my entire room smell great! Yay!

~Liz~

Bad day

Well, not so much a bad day as a really not good day. It all start out good, and ended good, but the middle was bad. Puff, (not Hazel for once) was all sickly looking, and her eye was gross and swollen and not living at home, I didn't know this, but apparently it had been like this since SATURDAY and no one bothered to tell me until Thursday after work, after the vet was closed. So I got her in yesterday, and the verdict is not good.

Apparently she scratched her eye somehow (probably fighting with Hazel), and got it infected. So now there are three options: 1) put her to sleep 2) they remove the eye, and there are alot of other complications that go along with that, including the more antibiotics, and of course, possible complications that go along with the fact that most of the neverous system, and some ateries, and so forth run along the back of the eye socket. 3) is that we do at least a month of antibiotics, and there is very little chance that she will make it if we do that, and very little chance that they're not gonna have to remove the eye anyhow.

So while it is a horrible choice to have to make, I really think the safest, and most humane thing to do for her is to put her to sleep. There are several problems with this as well, because bunnies are social creatures, and Hazel and Puff have been together since they were born minus a few nights at the vet for Hazel, about a week of Hazel living in the bathroom due to a cone around her face, and about a week of Hazel living in the wilderness of our backyard when she managed to literally climb out of the rabbit hutch when she was very little. Hazel cries at night when Puff isn't around, so I don't know what to do. I'm afraid that as soon as Hazel realizes that Puff isn't coming back that she will stop eating, and just generally lose the will to live, and as such, she will pass away shortly after Puff does.

The only thing really making this any easier is they fact they they are both around 7-8 years old now (they actually should have just turned 8) and most rabbits don't live to see 10. So, it's not like they are young, and they have had good lives, lots of treats, no need to actually do anything. Litterally spoiled rotten. So, I'm tempted to get a kitten for Hazel to play with, because cats and rabbits get along okay if they are trained from the beginning, and Hazel hasn't had any bad experiences with cats yet. However, I'd much rather have a dog, and having a cat for her to play with would require that they live with me, and pet deposit is rediculously expensive.

Anyhow, so it sucks, but I'm still pretty sure that the first option is the nicest. I'm trying really hard to not let if affect me, so I'm sorry if it does.

I'm done ranting now.
Over and out good buddies,
~Liz~

Questions, questions, questions

So, what do you do if you don't want to be in school, you don't want to work, you don't know what you want to pursue in school, and you can't afford to not work?

hmm... well I don't know either.

Okay, so for lack of anything better to do, I think I've decided to do personal benefit type stuff... stuff that will benefit you as an individual.
Beyond reading, and working out, I don't know what else to do. So far, I've wasted a good chunk of time scrapbooking, and knitting, but they aren;t really enough to hold you for a long time, so I was wondering, "What would you do to make yourself a better person?" This could be moral, or physical, or emotional, or spiritual, or mental, I don't know, I was just wondering, what you would do.

Would you clean? Would you donate time doing something? Would you read? Would you just take up another job to benefit your self financially? What would you do?

Okay, I think that's all for today, I'm gonna go spend some time meditating on these questions myself.

Thanks in advance for any imput!

~Liz~

My Brother Got Engaged!!!!

Yay! My brother got engaged!!!! This means I'll finally have a sister... kinda. Sister-in-law, sister, same difference, right?

Well, I think so! Anyhow, so I guess they aren't really married right now, but they will be in like a year or something like that, so she's not really my sister-in-law yet, but almost!


Yay!!

Over and out little buddies,
~Liz~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
This Post Edited for Everyone's Heart's Sake on 1/23/07.
And Yes, that is the Ring!