Your History Lesson for the Day

Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York. This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico.
But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost. The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day. The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo.

--yeah, that's great, I know--

Veni, vidi, vici

I think that's how it goes. I came upon my birthday, I stared it down and I conquered it.**

It was an emotional, but pretty nice birthday weekend. On Friday evening I pretty much did everything BUT school work. I cleaned the bathroom, my bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, etc. I made two loaves of bread (the first was sun dried tomato and the second was chocolate chip!), a pot of soup and dinner for myself. I think I also went grocery shopping at some point. On Saturday, David and I watched Brokeback Mountain through half-napping eyes. Between the post-Indian food sleepiness and the mumblin' men, I had to rewind the DVD like twenty times. Then, I got all dolled up to have a birthday dinner party at Savita's. Among the four of us, we managed to drink two bottles of wine. Now, I know that doesn't sound too excessive, especially with a meal, but both Savita and I are light weights so two glasses of wine was enough to have us rolling on the floor (no joke) laughing. Of course, before the floor-rolling began I changed out of my nice skirt into a pair of pj bottoms. Wouldn't want to flash anyone....
Some serious conversations picked up as the alcohol (and the other two guests) left us. All in all it was a fantastic night.

Sunday morning Daivd's parents came down for breakfast. We ate and again I found myself about to pass out from exhaustion. I guess that's the thing with not being able to sleep much at night. nonsense. The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy. I can't really recall what we did except that we took a walk. I had to work an extra shift as a study hall proctor which was an adventure in itself b/c I didn't have the keys to get into the building, but those 3 short hours of fun were followed by a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. ooohhh man I love those Strawberry Tall Cakes. David and I scarfed one of those down on top of a fairly substantial meal and ended up surprising ourselves and our favorite lawyer-to-be waiter, Max. We closed the place down (I feel horrible when that happens), but I left a hearty tip so that Max will still love us and continue to NOT spit in our food when we return =)

Still no luck on selling the car which is like a huge weight on my back. I think I'm going to list the thing on Ebay since all those interested have not called back. I cannot WAIT until graduation. I am finishing up a paper and a take-home final and that should about do it (barring any unforeseen assignments in my dreaded Hispanic Readings & Comp. class). Cool, huh?

**Grammatical note: As far as I know, it is still grammatically acceptable to leave out the comma before the "and" in English. If not, please correct. If so, here's my explanation for this "sudden" change: in Spanish it is grammatically incorrect to include the comma before the last item in a series (if it has a conjunction). Thus, in an attempt to make both of my languages love eachother, I am compromising =) No, not really. But, I am trying to clarify the grammatical rules for both because my grammar in both languages has fallen by the wayside.

sore throat

to bring home the honors convocation last night, i woke up with a sore throat. let's hope it doesn't progress into anything full blown. that would be a sucky birthday present to myself, don't you think. also, a bad way to start the fierce killer sessions that come at the end of the year.

triumphantly, i can announce that i finished my thesis and got it bound up yesterday. got the copies signed this morning and distributed them throughout the day. karen nearly killed me when she told me i was supposed to do two theses, one for H-I-D in English and one for University Honors. thank god we cleared that up!

let's see... a few small projects, one huge paper, and some stuff to memorize in spanish, and then i am home free, baby!! =)

CELEBRATION TIME!!!

Just wanted to share with the whole world what wonderful news I've received today.

Rejoice! This is Easter!!

To the left are some beautiful Easter eggs that I painted for everyone in Paint. Yay!!

NOW ON TO THE SUPER-DUPER EXCITING NEWS...

are you ready?

I'm going to be an aunt!!

(aunt again, I guess). Congrats to my super-cool brother Derek and his wife Carrie. I suppose I could attach some picture of the baby here, but I don't have any as it's still on its way. The baby is due November 5th!! (well within the deadline I gave Derek and Carrie for having the baby BEFORE I leave for Chile!! =) Now ensues the waiting period... three cheers for Spring and babies!!

translator

this one is a pretty good translator-- you can do websites and blocks of text. both useful. oh and there are lots of lang. too. so, if you want to translate my spanish to japanese to make it easily intelligible for you, feel free =)

EASTER FUN

Happy early Easter, everybody. Or, I guess happy Maudy Thursday?

Anyways, here is a completely commercialized comic for your Easter fun!


yeah. that's right. you know you love it =)

Selling off my stuff

The purge has begun. I am trying to get rid of pretty much everything that I own (minus five "large" items: La-Z-Boy, sewing machine, bread machine, books, and kitchen pots). Caitlin and I are planning on a yard sale next weekend. Oh, and if you know anyone who wants a car really cheap... =)

It was sooooo hot today. Goodness I missed the sunshine!! Now I'm at work inside an air-conditioned building freezing my brains out.

I am looking forward to Easter, though I have not participated in any Easter-ish sort of festivities yet. I bought 18 eggs yesterday, though. So, I guess I am well stocked for the hard boiled eggs with the plastic shrink wrapping. Ummm, nevermind. I don't have the plastic thingies. Maybe I'll just draw scenes on them in pencil. Which reminds me, does anyone else's father draw big X's on hardboiled eggs before strategically placing them back in the egg carton so that the X's are not readily visible?

I think David and I are going to cook some kind of Mexican smorgasboard for Easter Sunday. I'm a little disappointed that it won't be Mediterranean, but his parents are coming and they don't really enjoy hummus and the like. So, we decided on Mexican. I think we'll do Mexican cornbread, 5-layer bean dip, some salsas, chips, and fajitas. We're are going to try a flan for dessert, but I am not so confident in my custard-making abilities.

And, all the time this weekend that I am not sleeping or preparing for the fiesta, I will be writing--yes, lots of projects, papers, etc. due next week. But, after that.... freedom will be so close! =)

ahhh.... two and a half weeks. Can you believe that? Man oh man. Graduation will be sweet-- lots of friends, lots of family, and lots of food. Don't think it could get any better....

Spoke to my M.I.A. "European gal pal" last night til, umm midnight (read: 6 am her time). We really need to start putting dampers on these conversations. But, they are so few that they almost have to go on FOREVER. Things are starting to fall in place for the summer. =) It looks like I will do the Dublin thing for a day and a half and then fly to Amsterdam and spend approx. four days in the area before taking the train (how majestic) to Cologne, Germany. We'll meet up with Max and take some tours, hopefully even getting down into the Black Forest. Jewel has her heart set on seeing Brynn, and she conveniently lives at the northern tip of the B.F., so this is all falling together. Then, the 19th, I will be in Madrid and my Spanish immersion will begin! Bye-bye English. I've promised myself that I will NOT speak, write, or listen to anything that is in English once it has begun. Which means that all of you will get a nice little Spanish lesson too! haha. I've already started to compile a list of Spanish songs to attempt to download and burn onto MP3 cds (yes, I still don't have an MP3 player b/c well, I don't have a computer so it seems a bit silly). David and I are making a trade--I gave him my super cool Crate and Barrel plates, bowls, and glasses and he is giving me his portable MP3/Cd player. I'm excited b/c I'll pretty much be able to get all of my Spanish music onto, oh, 4 or 5 cds which means more space for souvenirs in my pack!!

Well, adios for now, mis amigos. Necesito trabajar y escribir mi composicion! =)

quick post

we had a lazy saturday yesterday =). we finally made it out-of-doors around 3:00 pm for a trip to the new mahoney's. i'm on a hunt for a few "essentials" for my european excursion this summer. we checked out the backpacks and hiking shoes. my head is still reeling at the prices. i didn't buy a thing, but david walked out with a pair of columbia closed-toe sandals (with breathing holes, of course) and some brown shoe polish for his dr. martens. we were so exhausted with the shopping/spending money that we settled down to watch blazing saddles. not surprisingly, i fell asleep after about 30 minutes and slept for the same. did some online searching for backpacks now that i was equipped with "mahoney wisdom" and WAS surprised to learn that the gregory tega pack at mahoney's (on sale) is cheaper than any i could find online. i even checked overstock.com. they have lots of dana designs packs (i think they are the best??), but sadly they only offer size small which is too small for my med. sized hips =)

toying with the idea of investing in either birkenstocks or hiking sandals instead of a lightweight hiking shoe for this trip. but, no one seems to carry size 11 so that i can try either on... a little scared of ordering shoes b/c i am so picky. for now, i will be content with NOT purchasing anything outrageously expensive like shoes. i will probably buckle down and buy the pack, though =)

in the evening, we went out on a much-needed date. there is a brand new indian restaurant called SAHIB behind the old Days Inn. it was pretty sweet (actually, hot)! i ordered medium and thought i was going to die. Our waiter promised us that they would have masala dosa starting monday. i will definitely be back for that!!

then, it was a speedy gonzalez trip to the bathroom so that we could make it to RTR in time for v for vendetta. interesting and somewhat scary movie. the jump-out-and-kill-people scenes were too gruesome for me, but i thought the film was excellently done. i was amazed that i could perceive changes in v's facial expressions even though he wore a mask the whole time! weird.

Future ouches

I was reading up on all the necessary "to do's" before traipsing about Europe and stumbled upon this: "make sure all your shots are up-to-date." After thinking about it, I had no idea if I fell into the ill- or the well-prepared in this respect. So, I hunted for that little elusive piece of green cardboard a.k.a. my immunization record and discovered that I am almost a year overdue for a tenanus/diptheria shot. "Gosh," I wondered, "have I contracted either illness in this interim?"

which then had me searching for symptoms...

"The first signs of tetanus infection are usually a headache and spasms or cramping of the jaw muscles (lockjaw). As the poison spreads, it progressively attacks more groups of muscles, causing spasms in the neck, arms, legs, and stomach, and sometimes violent convulsions (seizures)." source.

well, I think I'm okay despite the fact that I often have headaches and cramping in my jaw. Most recently because of a soccer collision.

and diphtheria?

"Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that spreads easily and occurs quickly. It mainly affects the nose and throat. Children under 5 and adults over 60 years old are particularly at risk for contracting the infection. People living in crowded or unclean conditions, those who aren't well nourished, and children and adults who don't have up-to-date immunizations are also at risk."

hmmm.... I kept reading the webpage:

"In its early stages, diphtheria can be mistaken for a bad sore throat. A low-grade fever and swollen neck glands are the other early symptoms.
The toxin, or poison, caused by the bacteria can lead to a thick coating in the nose, throat, or airway. This coating is usually fuzzy gray or black and can cause breathing problems and difficulty in swallowing. The formation of this coating (or membrane) in the nose, throat, or airway makes a diphtheria infection different from other more common infections (such as strep throat) that cause sore throat. "

okay, good. nice little lesson, huh?

anyways, I am going to get this little injection this week. Probably tomorrow. yay! I'm soooo looking forward to the pin prick I can almost feel it now =)