A whole month since my last post, boy does time fly. This week finds me in the midst of finals. In fact I'm writing this as a study break from biostatistics. I can't believe that I'm already at the end of the semester and while I'm very glad to be done with some of my classes I'm not sure that I'm ready to start in on my 17 credit semester. Thankfully between now and then we have Christmas break which I am especially looking forward to. This year all the family is getting together at my grandparents for the first time in years. It will be so nice to be all together again.

I also can't wait to go home. From what I hear my Mom has gone all out this year dragging the 15 boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic. The things I look forward to include actually having a real tree with lights and ornaments, Dad playing his never-ending Perry Como and Dean Martin CD's, the ham dinner, the nativity set my aunt hand crafted sitting out on the mantle, watching my favorite Christmas movies with my family huddled together in front of a wood fire while drinking really good hot chocolate with whip cream and a peppermint candy cane.

So as you can see studying is a little hard when I have visions of sugarplums dancing through my head. So much to be grateful for this year not the least of which will be passing my finals which I now must return to studying for. Merry Christmas to all.

Well despite rumors to the contrary I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I have however done the next best thing- I've been in grad school. I've been learning all about least squares regression, hypothesis testing, genetics of hypertension, bias and risk ratios, and last but certainly not least what an IC does at the EIC. I've also managed to get a job working in a lab that is doing research on Haemophilus influenzae which I'm really enjoying, working in a lab coat make me feel like a real scientist!

In between all of my academic work I think I've finally settled into life here in A2. One cool thing about A2 is that Borders bookstore started here. The downtown Borders is "the" store to go to. Very big names, including Caroline Kennedy and Umphrey's McGee come in for book signings and performances. I was super excited because Little Big Town played and signed their cd yesterday. It was a small crowd and you basically stood right in front of the performers. I was really impressed because each of the band members took the time to shake your hand, look you in the eye, and learn your name- It was just way cool.

Among all the fun there is one big drawback to living up here, the cold. It came all of the sudden one day it was 80 the next day it was 32. No matter how many layers you wear or how high you turn up the heat you can never warm up. Needless to say the electric blanket gets lots of use.

Well that's it for now. Who knows when the next post will be but I hope that I'll be able to post those long awaited for pictures of the place soon.

The Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Index Cards

10. They are all white and clean before you write on them.

9. They can fold up into great paper airplanes or leap frogs.

8. They come in pretty colors.

7. They are economical.

6. They can be cut into many shapes, including thin strips to help keep the eyes open during a 8 am biostatistics class.

5. They weigh a lot less than a 9 pound textbook so you can carry them around without having to take pain killers (unless they give you a nasty papercut).

4. They are great for scrapping used rubber eraser off of your desk.

3. If you stuff a stack of them into your wallet you can experience what it is like to have money and not air in your wallet.

2. When you carry around a big stack of them as study cards you have the appearance of being a studious (smart) student.



And the number 1 reason why I love index cards is:



1. They make great kindling to burn your textbook when you bomb the test they were supposed to help you study for.

Before

So I thought I'd post some pictures of what my apartment looked like before unpacking.

There are more pictures of after to come!

More Adventures in Wonderland

I guess I'm just destined to experience interesting events in my new life. Today's adventure scared me half to death but I survived. Today I was taking the bus home reading my newspaper and trying to act all sophisticated when a noise that sounded like a bomb going off happened right outside my window. The cabin of the bus started to fill with thick black smoke and the driver pulled off the road. We all trooped off the bus to discover that the bus had blown one of its tires.

Now are you ready for this, the driver called back to the transit station and they told her to keep going on her route even with a flat tire. Now I know that there were two tires on each Axel's side but still the thought of riding in a buss with a flat tire wasn't very appealing. Fortunately for me my stop was just down the road so I didn't have to stay on the bus for long.

Hopefully the rest of the week isn't quite as eventful.

I Love A2

Well today I decided to have some fun and go exploring A2 (Ann Arbor) while I had a chance to relax and not worry about studying. I stopped inside my favorite bookstore The Dawn Treader where they have piles of books stacked to the celling. They have a very eclectic mix of old and new books with just about something for everyone. True to form I didn't leave their empty handed and I'm super excited because I picked up an old copy of a G.K. Chesterton book I've been looking for.

Being a food network addict the next part of my day was cool. I turned the corner to go down the arcade when I nearly ran into Mario Batali who was turning the corner right into me. I've always wondered if he really did wear crocks and the orange vest even when he wasn't on t.v. and the answer is he does. I had to do a double take to make sure it was him, I couldn't quite believe that one of the people I watch on t.v. in N.Y.C. was just casually walking down the streets of Ann Arbor.

The other great adventure of the day was my coming out of my shell and participating in some social activism. A local church is sponsoring a World Vision event about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. So I decided that I should do something to help raise awareness for this event since World Vision is an organization I greatly admire and support. So what did I do to help? I went around all day wearing this black shirt that has the word "orphan" printed across it in white with information about location and the event on the back. You should have seen the way people looked at me, most just adverted their eyes, it was a very interesting experience. Well I was checking out in line with my lunch and the cashier asked me if I really was an orphan and I was able to explain to her about the event and what it was. It was pretty cool to help get the word out.

Am I Really A Grad Student?!

Well I've finally almost completely unpacked all my stuff that I brought up with me. I've got cute pictures on the wall and an assortment of kitchen supplies that would make a chef envious. My apartment is tons bigger than my old one yet I still managed to fill up every nook and cranny, although I do have bookshelf room in case I find some treasures at the Antique book sale next year.

Mom was so helpful in helping me get settled, I really don't know what I would have done without her. We scrubbed, dusted, nailed, glued, and shopped our way through 6 full days of unpacking (yes you read that right, 6 whole days).

In the midst of unpacking I celebrated another birthday (My star birthday I'm told) and attended 4 days of orientation.

I'm still feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, and nervous from my last day of orientation. I find myself wondering if I am really smart enough to study in this field because everyone else seems to have a whole lot more experience than I do. I think I'm having the worst case of pre-school jitters in recent memory. At orientation I did manage to meet a lot of nice people who are in the Epi department. The incoming class is 79% female however in my program I think we are about 48% male which is quite the change from my undergrad days of 100% female population.

I've had lots of college adventures (headaches really) that I've forgotten existed. These problems mainly have to do with my direction location disability (i.e. I'm a blond and get lost really easily). I spent Tuesday hiking miles across campus in the wrong direction in 97 degree heat in black dress pants lugging around a 10 lbs. book bag. Fortunately for me I stumbled across the school union where I was able to locate a campus map and trek back north across campus. Getting lost does have its upside I discovered where the coffee shops are, the museum that houses the letter Columbus sent back to Ferdinand and Isabella announcing the discovery of the New World, and the law school library that looks like it came right over from Oxford University and where you can meet lots of cute law students.

I also registered for classes and it really dawned on me like a nuclear mushroom (bright light illumination greater than that of the sun) that I am really, really, really going to have to study a lot. I guess when classes you have to register for classes have names like molecular epidemiology, biostatistical analysis for health related studies, and pathologic basis of disease you come to the realization that you will:

A) Need lots of caffeine because you really won't get any sleep
B) Need lots of pencils with big erasers
C) Eat canned spaghetti o's because your textbooks will cost more than
a house payment

So that is what's been going on so far and just think school hasn't even started yet!

Packing

Well my Summer is officially coming to an end as I now start to pack for my new life up in Michigan. One week and counting is all I have left to pack up all my stuff (also known as junk) into organized boxes that will then be loaded in 3 different cars (like I said, lots of junk). At last count I had 5 full boxes of books containing books that I really want to read. I'm not really looking forward to unloading all this stuff since the strongest member of my family won't be their to help lug boxes due to his need to be at school a week early. I'm beginning to believe that I need to find a boyfriend before Tuesday in order to help me load and unload all the junk since it will probably take the three of us a very long time to move it all :).

Once again this summer is flying by in a blur of work, summer barbecues, and weddings. Yesterday I finished working at my Summer job and now I'm looking forward to taking a quick trip to visit family before I head up to school. I've got mixed feelings about starting this new chapter in my life, I'm excited to see where this road leaves but I'm going to miss the comforts of living at home :)

This last year at home has given me lots of time to reflect, write, and read. Something I didn't have a whole lot of time for at Purdue. Hopefully I will have acquired some new habits that I'll be taking with me.

My birthday came early this year when my parents and I attended the Martina McBride concert in Louisville, KY. We had awesome seats in the third row and we were so close that at one point I smiled at Martina and she smiled back, so cool. I really enjoyed her music before I went to this concert but being able to hear in person her incredible vocal range, music choices, and talent has made me move her in to my all time list of great singers.

We also saw Little Big Town who definitely warmed up the 17, 000 other people well. By the end of the night my ears were ringing.

Since no trip to Kentucky is complete without barbecue we also found a little hole in the wall which served up some great ribs.

Being a horse lover I had to make a stop over at Churchill downs where I got up at 6 a.m. in order to see the morning exercise jogs. On the backstretch tour we also managed to catch a glimpse of this years Derby winner who is still stabled their.

What a great way to usher in a new year!

So I haven't blogged in a long time, sorry. I promise to finish the illustrated "que" blog shortly.

Today since it is July 4th I would like to take a moment to thank God for allowing me the privilege of living in this great country. Yes America has it's flaws, some deep, but this is still a great nation. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the people who help to preserve the liberty I enjoy. To those I don't know and to those I do, thank you.

I read a biography on John Adams which had a tremendous impact on my life and challenged me to examine how I live my life. I would like to end this post with something he said that sums up how I feel, "Sink or swim, survive or perish, I am with my country... You may depend upon it"

Backyard Q

So as promised I have created a step by step illustrated guide of my latest barbecuing endeavor. This weekend I grilled a half-pork shoulder to make pulled pork samwhich North Carolina style (vinegar based barbecue). It took four hours of patience but the end result was well worth it.

First up is making the rub, washing the meat off, and allowing the rub to sit on the meat. This piece of meat is 8 LBS. After this I started the grill with a chimney starter and started to soak the hickory wood chips that I would need to put on top of the white hot coals. This piece of meat needed low and slow cooking so I used very few coals. You know things are going well when you see smoke poring out the top of the grill. It's also important to set the grill up for indirect heat so that you have an area which isn't directly over the flame (this is where the meat goes).

The drip pan is also important because it catches the fat and juice that drips off of the roast. One word to the wise, don't drop white hot coals in this pan when stuff is in there or else you have flames 3 feet high, this is from the voice of experience.

In my next post I'll upload pictures of moping the meat, ways to prevent the fire department from having to come to your place, and the finished product.

Well Summer has been flying by. I turn around and the month of June is gone. I've been keeping busy with my job, my math class, family commitments, and trying to cut into my summer reading list. So far I've been able to read a few of the classics, however, the other day I went into the library and told myself that I wouldn't go looking for more books to read because I already had a stack 6 deep at home. Walking past the new book section I caught the title of a book I have been looking forward to reading so I picked it up, then another and another, all told 8 books total. So that brings my summer reading list up to 20 so far. Not so sure that I'll get through all those before the end of August.

I just finished the book that started the avalanche of new books, entitled "Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student" by Anonymous M.D. This book deals with how young people in todays society are fed "politically correct" information regarding sex, personal choices, and prevention that can cost them their health if not their lives. I found this book extremely interesting, horrifying, and sad all at the same time. Since I will soon be in a profession which is contributing to the PC spin I guess I need to start gearing up for battle and this book provided some good ammo to lob the first round in my STD health class.

On to happier topics I've been tackling some daunting grilling projects. Last week I slow cooked some hickory smoked St. Louis spareribs and this Saturday I'm going to tackle a pork shoulder. If your in the area and would like to stop in for dinner around 6 p.m. let me know, their should be enough of this monster to go around. For those of you who can't make it you'll be able to see the step by step process posted here shortly after completion (sorry but I can't figure out how transport samples over the Internet).

Also for those of you who don't know I'm a big geek. To prove this point I paid a trip to the new superheroes museum here in Indy. Focusing on Batman and Superman this exhibited only 1/4 of a someones personal collection of memorabilia. It was complete with a full scale replica of the batmobile and I left this fun little museum with a poster of the batmoblie to hang on my new apartment wall. Yeah for me.

Light Summer Reading

So I have decided to set up quite a formidable list of summer reading this year. Go figure that I pick one of the most crazy summers in recent memory to start trying to tackle the classics.

Now you might be wondering "gee shouldn't she have read these books already" and the truth is yes I might have read some of them but not because I wanted to. Now that I am older and not a whole lot wiser I have decided to start trying to read with understanding some of the stuff I avoided when I was young. The list includes:

• The Annals and The Histories by Tacitus
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn
• Confessions by Augustine
• The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
• The Divine Comedy by Dante
• The Republic by Plato

This is the first part of the list. As to whether or not I'll ever get through any of it, we'll see

I have been reading a book recently that has been challenging me to examine my beliefs and is helping me to grow mentally and spiritually. Now before I reveal the intriguing title of this book I want to preface this post by saying that I'm very content in my current stage of life, God is in control, and I'm more at peace with who I am than I have been in a long time. So with that what in the world could be the title of a book that would lead to an introductory statement like that, simple "Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye?" by Carolyn McCulley.

It's kind of a provocative title isn't it? I've read a lot of books on the whole being a single woman thing and in my opinion this is right up there with the best (i.e. Passion and Purity). Instead of advice that doesn't really help out the single woman (ex. "God will send the man along once you have done all the things you need to do") Ms. McCulley writes with compassion, humility, and humor on the finer points of being single. I think that one of the things I appreciate most is that the author herself is an "older" (relative to my age, but I'm sure that 40 won't seem that far off soon) single woman who can easily relate to what we single women go through.

The whole point of this book is to remind us how to diligently and joyfully use this season of life that God has given us. Personally I don't want to go into a marriage with a ton of false expectations and then dump my idea of what married life should be like right on my new spouse. Thinking that happiness(or rather complete happiness and not being lonely) , usefulness, and purpose can occur only in married life is a mindset that I (and I would venture to say other single women) sometimes fall into the trap of believing.

This book has challenged me to examine ways that I can fulfill my duties as a woman by working with my church and other families. I have to admit that I never really thought the Proverbs 31 woman applied to anyone but a married woman, so imagine my surprise when I realised (after Ms. McCulley pointed it out) that the proverb starts out by telling a man what to look for in a woman, so she is probably single.

Well these are only a few morsels of what I gleaned from this book. I seem to be on this big "being single" book kick so I look forward to comparing this book to some others I'm reading. Maybe I'll even put up a few more reviews.

+1

I was recently reading a book when I realized the startling fact that this month marks the one year point in which my life once again radically changed. One year ago I graduated from Purdue uncertain of exactly what it is I wanted to do but knowing that I didn't want to work directly in the vet. world. Now one year latter I look back on those uncertain times and can see how God used events in my undergrad. to prepare me for what I am about to do.

Last year this time I also went to Summit which brought many personal and spiritual changes into my life. I'm glad to say that the commitments I made at Summit are still with me today. I don't take what I know for granted, you need to know why something is true and be able to explain your reason for that belief. While I'm not sure how good I am at explaining what I believe I've definitely grown in my ability to do so since last year.

I also have become a voracious reader of people who before Summit I had never really heard of (or read any of) and once again my life has been enriched because of Nancy Pearcy, G.K. Chesterton, and Francis Schaffer.

I still am faced with uncertainty but being able to look back over this last year and see how it all works together for good (even the bad) I'm very glad that I'm in the care of someone who knows better than I do.

The Great American Adventure- Part 1

So my parents decided at the last minute that we should take a family vacation. No flights were available to Hawaii, California, Ireland, or Florida so the parents decided that we would go to Nashville, TN and Ashville, NC. While I was at first skeptical about what we were getting into this trip turned out to be a whole lot of fun.

We started out the day driving from IN to Nashville. While on the road we made a few interesting stops. First up was Mamoth Cave in KY. These caves had HUGE underground tunnels. One of the caverns even had a sealing 80 ft. above our heads and stretched out for an acre. It also was a really hot day so I thoroughly enjoyed being able to be down in the nice cold cave. I kept hoping some bats would show up somewhere but the park ranger said when the cave was open in the turn of the century they tried to kill them all because the floor of the cave was a little "slippery" to walk on. Today they are trying to lure them all back but it didn't look like it was working.



Next stop was not high on my list of things to do, however because we had two men in the car poor mom and I didn't have much of a choice. We stopped at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. It was pretty funny to see all the drooling men paying homage to the cars. We got to see lots of rare cars and I will admit that it was kinda neat. I even found a few cars that I would like to drive.

We eventually made it to Nashville. What does one do when they are in the music city? Why eat bar-b-que and go to the Grand Ol' Oprey of course! So we did. My poor brother hates country music so he had to suffer through the concert, however I experienced a highlight of the trip when I got to see Martina McBride live on the Oprey stage. She sang her song "Always" which is one of my all time favorite songs.

We did all this in one day, needless to say we headed back to the hotel exhausted and I fell asleep almost instantaneously.

More Reading Material For Your Pleasure

Today I added links to two blogs (o.k. one and a web magazine) which I have spent several hours browsing and reading some very interesting material.

Other than that I'm afraid I don't have much time for a proper post. We're going on a family field trip this weekend and I haven't started to pack yet.

Coming and Going

Well these past few weeks have flown by because I have been busy visiting potential grad. schools. I just got back from a very nice visit at the University of Minnesota. Located in downtown Minneapolis this campus has a very different feel than Ann Arbor. I'm not sure that I really want to go to school in a major metropolis but the school has lots going for it including a great Epi. program, John Piper's Church, a Navigators group, and it seems there are lots of cute guys in the Epi program (just kidding).The bad part about this school is that housing is expensive and good housing seems to be few and far between.

After visiting the school mom and I paid a visit to the Mall of America. Ever since I was a little kid we have wanted to go and we had lots of fun walking around and around. We ate in this great little restaurant that reflected the regional cuisine of Napa Valley in CA. We even paid a visit to lego land where I saw the coolest lego ever, a huge replica of the incomplete death star from Star Wars Ep.4.

Of course we had plane problems returning home, which seems to be an constant problem whenever we travel. Overall it was a very good visit, now I'm just waiting to see if I get into the school.

In other news I did get into the U of Michigan, so it's pretty definite that I will be going to school somewhere.

Today Everyone is Irish

Today is the day when everyone who is Irish (or pretends to be Irish) wears green and eats corned beef and cabbage. It's no different around our house where St.Paddy's day is almost a holiday equal to the 4th of July. Even as I write this I can sniff corned beef wafting up from the kitchen.

So to everyone out there who is Irish (even if only for today) happy St. Patrick's day. Erin Go Braugh!

Why I Love Jane

I wish that I could have met Jane Austen, she seems like she would have been a very interesting person to know. I love how she makes such astute observations of human beings and then proceeds to record these observations (with a flair for the dramatic) in her wonderful writings.

I recently finished Northanger Abbey and there are few fiction books that I have enjoyed more. I mean how could you not like a book where the girl gets the guy in the end while enduring the social class in bath, a dark Gothic abbey, mysterious passages, and the scandal of the heroine being litteraly kicked to the curb for no discernable reason almost in the middle of the night.

I can picture Jane silently smiling to herself as she writes lines such as "To come with a well-informed mind, is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing any thing, should conceal it well as she can". How can you beat that?

Future Wolverine?

I just returned from a visit to the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor is a beautiful town and I can totally picture myself living there. Of course I won't have much time to do anything other than studying, especially if I go the molecular epidemiology route, but I think that perhaps a change of scenery will be good for me. I'm really excited about the possibility of going back to school, however I'm also a little intimidated at thinking of myself as a graduate student studying such serious topics.

It also snowed several inches while we were in Michigan and I must say that those people know how to clear snow from the roads! I was very impressed.

Well I'm still working on the grad. school applications but in the meantime I have developed one of those colds where your eyes water because you are going to sneeze but you end up never sneezing. Lots of fun.

On a lighter note mom and I saw "Music and Lyrics" a totally cute girl movie. I enjoyed this light piece of fluff, and while it is like any other romantic comedy ever made, this movie was a welcome escape from a hectic week. While there are a few slightly objectionable areas I do think this movie had a some interesting statements about the climate of current "pop" music.

Other than that there isn't much going on. Just typing, typing, typing, typing, typing....

Paperwork Blues

So if you are wondering what I have been doing with my time recently I'll tell you, applying for grad. school. That's right, after much agonizing about what to do with my life I feel like the next step is more school. While I'm thrilled about going back to school the thing that doesn't thrill me is filling out long applications. I especially hate the part where I have to write a nice long essay about why I want to go to that school in the first place. It's hard to make these essays sound genuine and not like fluffy junk.

I mean it's not like you can come out and say "I want to go to grad school because I don't know what else to do with my life and this is the best option". What you have to say in the essay is "I want to use my skills to better the human race. I think this is the best university to get that education so that when I'm done I can go out and save lives and make a difference. I also think that by saving lives I'll help to bring about world peace". Like I said I hate the essay.

Holding Pattern

One time I was on a flight when our plane had to circle around in the air for 40 minutes before we could land. I remember becoming very frustrated because this delay was decreasing the chances of me making my connection. Sure enough when the plane finally landed we had missed our connection and the first class seat I had going to Paris, France was gone. The airline booked my family and I on the flight the next morning but I was upset because we lost one day off our trip, a day that was to include spending lots of time on the D-Day beaches of Normandy. I could see no reason for the lost day, we were just circling around in the air, there was absolutely no reason for this to happen.

We finally did make it to France and the most amazing thing happened, we met two men who were veterans of the D-Day invasion, who had fought on the very land we were standing. These men proceeded to show us around these little villages in France and told us stories that can't be found in the history books. One of the men was a paratrooper who showed us around the town that he helped to capture from the Germans. It was amazing and if we would have caught the connecting flight to France I would have missed it all.

Now I find myself in another holding pattern in my life, the job hunt. I've sent in my applications, I've talked to mentors in my field, I get conflicting opinions from all around. I don't know whether to go to school, get a job, or some combination of both. It's just a big frustrating mess. I keep asking God to give me some clear direction of what I'm supposed to do but all I feel like I'm doing is going around in circles without landing. I can't land a job and I keep missing the application deadlines for school programs.

What I keep telling myself is that I can't see what will result from this holding pattern. This mentality doesn't always work but hopefully Divine Providence will allow me to land soon.

Mount Everest

Today I looked out my window and discovered mount Everest. As you can see this is quite the pile of snow. It towers at least two feet above my poor little car. We are blessed to have very nice neighbors who came over and cleared the driveway yesterday with their snow blower. They then let me borrow it today to remove the 1 foot of snow that accumulated throughout the night. Foolishly I thought I could shovel out the drivers side door however I promptly sunk in snow up to my hips and gave up that idea, so if I need to go anywhere I guess I'll just have to climb in over the passenger side. That should be a lot of fun.

I've always thought it would be interesting to climb Mt. Everest so now that I'm done shoveling maybe I'll attempt to summit the daunting peak.

Movie Marathons

For once the weather forecasters were right and we did get a very big snowstorm. Fortunately I went to the library so I am well stocked on movies so I plan on snuggling underneath a warm cozy blanket and becoming a zombie for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I got to participate in one of my all time favorite activities, getting lost in a bookstore for a lengthy period of time. Originally I intended only to run in to pick up a book I had placed on hold however I noticed that they were running a sale on cd's and I knew of one that I wanted. I then did something I have not done in at least 10 years, I went over to the classical music section and rediscovered the joy of classical music.

Now you may be asking yourself "she hasn't listened to classical music in 10 years, she must be nuts!", however the reason for this is simple. When I was growing up all I listened to was classical music, not always by choice, so when I discovered some other musical options I self-imposed a classical music ban. Thus my musical journey lead me to discover big band, Judy Garland, Doris Day, and wonderful movie scores (with some pop and country music thrown in).

Recent events in life have lead me to rediscover my lost treasures. It's hard to put into words what classical music means to me now. I greatly enjoy music that makes musical sense and isn't focused so much on all the negative aspects of life, as seems to be the case of so much of what today is considered "music". While there are some pop standards that I do enjoy, and nothing will beat Judy Garland's "The Man Who Got Away", for today classical music is a balm to my exhausted ears.

What to do?

Today we are getting the first big snow storm of the year, yeah! It may not be a lot of fun to be cold or to have to drive on slick roads with a lot of people who don't know what they are doing but I just absolutely love snow. It's so pretty to look at and I love the crunch it makes under your feet.

As I sit at my desk with a big cup of tea it's fun to watch the little flurries start to accumulate. It is also a good distraction to keep from looking at my computer screen that's not giving me any leads on landing a job. Speaking of which I'd better end this post and get back to work.

Welcome

People keep telling me to start a blog so I did. I wouldn't hold out high hopes for intelligent content to be posted to this site or that anything truly meaningful will be found here but it's worth a try.