Disappointed :(

I ended up getting a B in my fluids class. :(  I was SO counting on an A!  I had a 94% average before the final, and I ended up bombing the final, which brought me to a B. :(  I'm so upset!  He's made mistakes on previous exams, so I asked him if I could take a look.  I'm really, really hoping he made a mistake.  All I need is four points to bring my grade up to an A.  Just four points!  GAH.

I also got a B in environmental history, which I was expecting.  My final GPA for the semester is 3.46 (would have been a 3.77 if I'd had an A in fluids), which I realize is still a good GPA, but I just keep creeping closer and closer to the 3.4 needed to get into the 5-year BS/MS.  Eric said a 3.46 is still a great GPA and isn't the end of the world, and I told him that school IS my world right now.  Sigh...

It's finally here... Christmas break!

I'm so glad the semester is over.

I studied my ass off last week for finals, and so far it's paying off.  I got an A in water/wastewater engineering, a class I was fully expecting to get a B in.  I also got an A in the lab for that class and an A in economics.  I'm now just waiting for fluid mechanics and environmental history.  I'm expecting to get an A in the former and a B in the latter.  Grades aren't due until Wednesday, though, so I won't know for sure until then.  I'm refreshing the website every 10 minutes...

We're leaving this Friday to go up to DC, and then leaving on the 26th to go to Omaha.  I'm so excited!

I'm so ready...

...for the end of the semester.

It's been a trying semester for me (although I probably think that at the end of every semester).  Two of my classes aren't going as well as I'd hoped--water/wastewater engineering and environmental history (of course!).  I spent hours on a midterm paper for environmental history, and I got a B+.  I was really hoping for an A on that one.  I had even spoken to a TA and received some feedback before submitting my paper, so I figured I would do very well.  The TAs grade everything, and I'd spoken to them about my grade on my midterm exam, the exam I studied hours and hours for and felt I would receive an A (I got a D--a fucking D!!!). One of the TAs said that he can't believe the professor requires as much detail on these exams as he does, and that he never had this kind of class in undergrad.  And this is a freshman-level history class!  I've taken college-level history classes before, and did quite well in all of them.  After talking to the TAs, they gave me back enough points to get a C+, which I still wasn't happy with, but I didn't want them to give me a grade they didn't think I deserved, so I didn't push it.

(Side note: one of the essays we had to write required that we write out the "three levels" of environmental history and explain them.  It's practically the thesis of the class.  I did so on my essay, but the guy who sits next to me couldn't remember all three, so he wrote out two and put a line for the third level, saying "can't remember :)".  Literally, with the smiley face.  And he received a better grade than I did.  Are you freaking kidding me?  The grades are so subjective and arbitrary.  It drives me freaking crazy.)

Anyway, so once I received the grade for the paper, I decided that I'm sick and tired of talking to the TAs about this because it's getting me nowhere, so I wrote to the professor instead.  I doubt it'll get me anywhere either, but I'd rather try.  I've never had to fight so hard for a grade.  In fact, I don't believe I've ever contested any grade before in my life.

Sigh.  Is this semester over yet?  Two and a half more weeks, two and a half more weeks, two and a half more weeks, two and a half more weeks...

WHEW!

I had fluids class yesterday, and the professor had planned on handing our exams back so I was fairly anxious.  We have 60+ students in our class, and mine was one of the last ones that he handed back.  It drove me crazy, and the longer I waited, the more anxious I got.  He finally called my name, handed it back, and said, "Nice job, Ms. Griffith."

Whaaaaa...?

I got a 92!  Holy hell.  I knew I didn't do well on one (out of three) of the problems, and I guess I just kept focusing on that one problem, thinking I did horribly on the entire exam.  However, the professor had a typo on that problem, so he gave credit for it.  So as it turns out, I had points taken off on only one problem.  As we went over the exam, I closely followed it to see where I had points taken off, and realized he had taken points off for something I did correctly.  I spoke to him about it, and he gave back 6 points.

So, yeah.  I got a 98%.  HA!

(Still waiting on all my other exam grades... argh.)

Blaaaahhhhhh

My classes aren't going so well.  I feel like I'm busting my ass this semester, and don't have much to show for it.  I've taken four exams in the last two weeks, and although I don't have my grades for any of them (side note: I hate professors that take forever to return exams), I feel I didn't do well on two of them (fluid mechanics and water/wastewater).  I probably did okay on my environmental history exam--what a joke that class is--and I think I did pretty well on my economics class.  Thing is, I need to keep my GPA above 3.4 in order to do the 5-year BS/MS.  I only have to achieve a 3.1 this semester to keep my GPA above 3.4, but I'd rather have as much breathing room as possible.  I'm taking difficult classes this semester, and the way my exams have gone, I'm beginning to feel I'm pushing the GPA limit.  I have my heart set on the 5-year program, and I just know that if I can't keep my GPA above the limit, I'll feel like a failure.  I hate this feeling.

My water/wastewater engineering professor isn't all that great.  He screws up a lot in class and doesn't explain things very well.  I'm mostly enjoying this class, but I'm not getting as much out of it as I expected.  However, my favorite professor teaches the second half of the class, so I'm looking forward to that.  Fluid mechanics is kind of interesting, but difficult.  Economics has been mostly easy.

My environmental history professor is SUCH A FREAKING BORE.  He's the kind of guy who loves to hear himself talk.  I was expecting to enjoy this class much more than I do.  It's really just history with some environmental disasters thrown in.  And the authors of the books that we're reading are even more long-winded than my professor.  Our exam consisted of four short essays and two long essays.  I've ALWAYS dreaded essay exams.  I despise them.  The way I studied for my exam was to memorize, memorize, memorize.  I hate memorization.  Did I say I hate essay exams yet?

Aaaaggggghhhh.  Sorry for the debbie-downer post, but I just had my water/wastewater exam tonight, and I'm feeling particularly incompetent and crappy.

The kind of day I'm having...

I decided to color my hair this morning.  I've done this on numerous occasions, and only once did it not quite come out so well (I ended up with a patch of hair in the back of my head that didn't get as dark as the rest).  So, I know what I'm doing, mostly.  Last time I did this, I decided to go with semi-permanent, and chose to do the same this time.  (Just as a forewarning, this story doesn't end as bad as you're probably thinking.  When I called Eric, he said he was mentally preparing himself to hear that I went bald or something.  I told him if that had happened, he'd be hearing a woman in hysterics.)

I got everything ready, and squeezed the color into the activator bottle (or whatever it's called).  (I promise, I do know what I'm doing.)  So, I start putting it into my hair, noticing how good it smells and how thick the stuff seems.  Oh well, I've only used it once before, and I can't really remember what it smelled like.  Due to the thickness of the stuff, it took a while, but I finally got it all through my hair.  I put my shower cap on, waited 10 minutes, and hopped in the shower.  As I was rinsing, I noticed the lack of color going down the drain.  Strange.  Still, I figured since it was semi-permanent, maybe there wasn't really much color?  Again, I can't remember from last time I did it.

Got everything rinsed out, and started to spread the conditioner they provided through my hair... which didn't smell so good.  In fact, it smelled a little bit like the color cream... LIGHT BULB!  After inspecting the tube, I realized I switched the conditioner and color.  Thankfully, my hair was didn't seem much different (I think maybe I stripped it a little of color), and in fact was pretty soft, after having conditioner sitting in it for a good 10-20 minutes. ;)  I had to run out to the store to get another box though.

Sigh.

My first semester...

at Clemson feels like it was both ages ago and just yesterday.  But it was only a year ago (and a whole year ago).  It's weird.

I went to campus Tuesday to help out the AWWA with the Tiger Prowl, an event for incoming freshman to scope out the organizations they might be interested in joining.  I'm president-elect for the AWWA.  I don't think I've mentioned that.

In April/May/something like that, the AWWA (the same organization that held a great "employment panel," a networking event for those interested in the water/wastewater field) had a meeting to determine next year's executive committee.  The way it works is that the president-elect, treasurer and secretary are all voted in.  The president is last year's president-elect.  So, next year's president-elect is this year's president-elect.  ANYWAY.  I signed up to be treasurer since I'm good with money (lame, but I wanted to be involved in some way).  I noticed one of my classmates was signed up as president-elect, and he seemed a good fit, so I wasn't going to "fight" him for the position.  What happened though, is that nobody actually signed up for president-elect, and they just randomly chose someone.  So, long story short, I became the president-elect since they already had people for all the other positions.  What this means is that next year, I become the president, and that this year and next, I have an all-expenses-paid trip to the South Carolina Environmental Conference for this year and next, which is apparently a great event for networking. :) I'm thrilled!

Did I mention a few years ago about a job offer from University of Pennsylvania (basically I would have been doing exactly the same thing as a previous job, being their all-around tech person--something I really enjoyed)?  I've been watching a TV series for teens that's really more like a soap opera for teens and they're all going to college, etc., so I've been thinking about the "status symbol" of going to an Ivy League college. (I WILL NOT divulge what show I'm watching.)  The person that offered me the job said that it wouldn't be difficult for me to get into UPenn as a student.  I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake in not taking the job.  How awesome would UPenn look as an employer AND my alma mater on my resume?  Think of the networking I could've had.  They also offer a B.S. in environmental engineering.  On the other hand, as the #5 school in the country, I might have a 2.5 GPA instead of a 3.5.  *shrug*  Who knows.  Maybe in some alternate universe, I'd be regretting my UPenn decision. ;)

So, anyway, those are my thoughts over the last few days.  My classes are mostly "blah" so far.  I hate my schedule.  My classes don't start until 11:15AM at the earliest, which drives me CRAZY.  I like to get my classes done as early as possible so I can focus on studying/work, and besides that, by the time I arrive at class, I'm a sweaty mess and THERE'S NO PARKING.

Back to school!

I haven't posted in forever, so I'm probably talking to myself at this point.  But I figure in a few years, I'll enjoy reading these entries.

Kleo is still just one big bundle of energy.  She does everything full-throttle.  Playing with toys, playing with Jaiden, going for walks, chasing bugs, etc.  It's usually cute and occasionally annoying.  She's somewhat high-maintenance in that she gets bored easily.  She's fully kennel trained now, and she'll go in there and sleep (although when I'm in the shower, she'll go sleep in Jaiden's kennel--I don't know why... maybe it's more comfortable?).  I'm looking forward to when she's a little bit older and slows down a bit.

This summer, I've been BUSY.  In addition to my regular job, I decided to take a class during the first six weeks of summer just to get it out of the way, and I've had an internship at Clemson (today's my last day, WOOT!).  My internship has been... wait for it...

Programming.  I knew the internship required some programming experience, but it was advertised as needing students in the environmental engineering or geology majors, so I didn't think it would be focused so heavily on programming.  That was fairly disappointing, especially considering I'm changing careers to get OUT of computers and  programming.  But, if nothing else, I suppose it'll look decent enough on my resume.

Yesterday, I gave a pretty decent presentation (to my professor and the others he's advising... about 8 people in total) on my internship.  Normally, I dread presentations.  When I was younger, I memorized my presentations, and if I couldn't remember something, I'd freak and stumble along.  So, I began to just wing it on most of my presentations, and just try to remember the main points.  That didn't work well either, so I just plain hated giving presentations.  I've gone back to memorizing again, but if I can't remember something, I'll take a few seconds to relax, try to remember, and if I can't, then I'll just move on.  It's worked well, and my nerves aren't nearly as frayed when I have to present.

I'm considering grad school, which is something I never thought I'd be interested in.  Clemson offers a 5-year BS/MS, so I'd just have to take an additional year of classes and I'd have a (non-thesis) MS.  I have to keep my GPA at or above 3.4 and right now it's at 3.53.  So I really need to kick ass the next couple of years.

I start school (technically my junior year, even though my status is "senior") on Wednesday.  I'll be taking economics, water/wastewater treatment, fluid mechanics and environmental history.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to this semester, but I know that in a few short weeks, I'll be looking forward to the end of the semester.

Kleo update

Jaiden laid into Kleo earlier. She's been going up to him, right in his face, and licking his mouth (sign of submission, I've read), or taking toys right out of his mouth (definitely not a sign of submission). For the most part, I've been telling her NO whenever she pulls that crap. It annoys Jaiden, but he'll mostly just toss his head away from her and/or move away. When it comes to food, though, NOBODY will take that away from him (except people). I had given them each some peanut butter because she's still on medication for kennel cough. Jaiden has a habit of licking his arms after eating peanut butter, which he was doing today. So of course, Kleo wanted to know what he was eating, went right up to him, in his face, and without missing a beat, he snarled and lunged toward her. That was the end of it.

But not for Kleo! She yelped as if he drew blood, ran behind me, tried jumping up on me, and basically acted as if her world was coming to an end. She's such a drama queen. She's lucky to be living with a such a patient dog. I would have yelled at her if I had seen it quickly enough, but it happened too fast. I didn't scold Jaiden, though, because I want her to learn she needs to keep her space when it comes to stuff like that. He gave me a look that said, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I love my food!"

On a walk earlier, Eric and Kleo had fallen behind, so I stopped to let them catch up. Jaiden immediately got down into his "hunting mode". He reverted to his Ridgeback-lion-hunter roots and laid down flat (even though he could easily be seen). As soon as Kleo caught sight of him, she sat down and refused to move. Very wise of her. ;)

It's funny to think that a couple of days ago, I was seriously ready to get rid of Kleo after having her for less than 24 hours. I was just expecting too much out of her. I haven't had to deal with puppy behavior in many, many years, and I guess I figured that she'd catch on much quicker than reasonable. I didn't give her enough time to get accustomed to her surroundings, and probably made things more stressful for her. Anyway, she's much more relaxed than when she arrived, and I'm starting to learn "who" she is. Turns out she's a morning dog. Sigh. She's pretty energetic, and seems to be getting increasingly energetic. Sigh. She's been playing with toys quite a bit, and it's pretty entertaining. She'll lay on the big dog bed, and growl at and chase her tail, her legs (???) and Jaiden's toys. Jaiden couldn't have cared less about toys until Kleo came around. Every now and then, he'll decide that whatever toy she's playing is suddenly really interesting. Damn dogs!

The kennel training has been going fairly well. Her new kennel came in yesterday, and I set it up right next to Jaiden's, hoping that maybe his gung-ho attitude about kennels would wear off on her. This morning, Eric woke up at 4AM and we took the dogs out. He went on an early morning run, and I decided to just leave Kleo out of her kennel, but closed the door to our bedroom. She jumped on the bed, I pushed her off... she laid on the floor, and about five minutes later, I heard her get into her kennel. SUCCESS!! She still doesn't like being crated during the day, though.

There are two other dogs I can't stop thinking about: a very frightened 7-year-old Chihuahua (he was the one sitting on a chair after his bath, taking a break from the noise) and a 7-year-old black lab mix. The older ones never get adopted, because people always want the younger dogs, the ones who'll be able to live long lives with their owners. I always feel badly for the older guys, and I'm kicking myself for not considering the lab mix. She looked like a sweetheart, and I swear it seems like the older ones understand exactly where they're at and what's going on. I mean, I'm glad we got Kleo, but the older guys really tug at my heart strings, and next time, I'll really get it into my head to consider them more seriously. The only thing with the puppyish dogs is that they adapt more readily to a family that already has dogs.

Sigh... :( There are far too many dogs out there that need a safe home! I wish the majority of dog breeders out there would just STOP.

New dog

I've been wanting a new dog for a long time, and I finally was able to convince Eric that we needed one. ;) So, over the weekend, Eric and I went to the local humane society and looked at two dogs we really liked. One was a 2-4 year old Catahoula mix named Brandie. She had a brindle look to her, with light brown eyes--gorgeous! The other one was a 10-month-old Carolina dog named Kleo, and when I saw her on the website, I thought she looked exactly like Jaiden, just with a little black around her nose. She ended up being a LOT smaller than I thought she was. We let Jaiden meet both, and Brandie's hair immediately raised up. I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I already have one dog who gets really excited about meeting other dogs... I was kind of hesitant about having two of those. When Kleo saw Jaiden, she yelped and hid behind Eric, but kept tugging at the leash to go meet him. It was weird and funny at the same time. But now I had a hard decision, because Jaiden seemed to get along with both really well.

I went back the next day (yesterday) to decide. Brandie was in one of the runs, and another dog was in the next run. I watched how she acted... she seemed fairly intent at times on wanting to say "hi" to the other dog. That was pretty much my deciding point. It's a pretty weak one, but it was all I had. So, I took Kleo home. Well, actually, I took her to the vet. She has kennel cough, and I figured while I had her in the car, I might as well take her straight to the vet. She peed in my car before I even got out of the shelter parking lot. Trying to look on the bright side, I figured maybe she just didn't want to get her kennel all messy and had held it for so long. Anyway, the vet gave Kleo an antibiotic/steroid shot, gave us some meds, and we went home.

I let her wander the house a bit, following her if she wandered where I couldn't see her. Eventually she wandered into Eric's man cave, I followed, and before I knew it, she was peeing on Eric's underwear (LOL). I took her straight outside. About an hour later, she peed in the house again--after she had just been out not too long ago, and did nothing. I was hoping that maybe it was just the steroids she had been given. At that point, though, I decided some crate training was in order, like NOW. I put her in Jaiden's kennel (hers will be here tomorrow). She whined a bit, but mostly just slept. Perfect! She didn't have another accident, and hasn't since.

That night, we kept her in our room with us and Jaiden, and she slept in the kennel. I didn't hear too much out of her. We did hear her reverse sneezing right around 3:30AM, and we figured we should probably take her out. After coming back in and putting her in her kennel, she whined for probably 10 minutes, but eventually settled down.

This morning, after Eric left, I put her in her kennel again. She began whining, but this time she didn't stop... and in fact, the whining turned into downright yelping. I put a blanket over her kennel, hoping that would calm her a bit, but no dice. So I went into the bedroom (the kennel was out in the living room at this point), left the TV on for her, and hoped she would just settle down. Nope. She got even louder. I took Jaiden outside, and I could hear her yelping out there. Ugh. Her yelps are deafening. She really learned how to make herself heard in that kennel. On the one hand, I want her to be loud so that she can maybe scare off intruders (all 30 pounds of her, lol), but on the other... OMG, the yelps make me want to rip my hair right out. It's enough to make Jaiden leave the room, giving me a dirty look on the way out. I had read that when you put a dog into a kennel, you leave her there until she calms down, and don't give her any attention (good or bad) until she calms. I tried to ignore her, I really did. When I took the blanket off, she began digging. She dug so fervently that she ripped the corner of the foam bedding to pieces. I yelled at her, she dug harder, started getting into the carpet, and I threw a slipper at her kennel. I know, that sounds bad. I was just so frustrated. The yelping, the digging... I'm not used to that much noise and destruction, and my brain was on total overload.

I gave up and let her out. I mean, I couldn't let her ruin the carpet. I was on the verge of tears, thinking I'd have to take her back. I've never had to deal with a destructive dog, and I didn't know how I was supposed to keep her contained without hurting the house or herself. So I took her and Jaiden on a 30-minute walk, on the verge of tears the whole time, thinking I'd have to take her back.

Every time I put her in the crate, I make sure to make it a positive experience... I give her toys (not interested) and food, but once the food/treats are gone, the yelping begins. For now, I've taken a break from the crate training. My brain (and Jaiden's, I'm sure) just can't handle that much yelping. I've ordered a new kennel with a plastic tray, and I'll be getting a plastic floor protector to put under the kennel in case she manages to destroy the tray. If we're going to keep her, she's going to HAVE to deal with being crated, because there's no way I trust her enough to leave her out. Unfortunately, that means Jaiden will have to deal with her. :(

I brought Jaiden up to be an upstanding citizen (I get compliments on his manners all the time), so I'm no dummy when it comes to dog training. I didn't expect to get a well-trained dog or anything, but I wasn't expecting such high maintenance. It's really taken the joy out of getting a new dog, and a small part of me regrets this decision. I know that sounds awful, but I'm finding it very hard to bond with her. In the meantime, we'll just keep working on things.

She'll definitely need some car training. When I first got Jaiden, he'd happily ride in the back seat, but as soon as I stopped the car and opened my door, into my lap he'd come, all 70 pounds of him. Kleo does the same thing, but at least she's only 30 pounds. I've trained Jaiden to be patient and wait in the back seat, and he's a champ about it. Kleo will eventually have to learn to do the same.

Of course, she'll need the crate training, and for now, she's being pretty good about doing her business outside. She's fairly good on the leash. She tends to jump up and grab treats out of my hand, and she's tried counter-surfing a couple of times.

She does have some really cute personality quirks. She occasionally watches TV, especially when there's a barking dog, and she chases bugs. When we're on walks, she really likes to stop and watch the cars go by, and she gets distracted by birds flying overhead. All in all, she's a really cute dog, and I haven't given up on her yet... but if she doesn't start behaving in the kennel and/or if she starts yelping at night... well, I don't know what we'll do. :(

2-Year Anniversary

Eric and I rented a cabin near Bryson City, NC for our two-year anniversary. We decided on this cabin:

http://watershedcabins.com/cabin-details/items/journeys-end.html

We left on Friday for our two-hour trip up into the mountains. There were, of course, a ton of twists and turns, and I was literally feeling dizzy and a teeny bit car sick. Seriously. I never get car sick. Jaiden was getting really antsy, too--the poor guy just couldn't get comfortable, and he kept getting up and whining.

We finally turned off the highway and onto the residential road near the cabin. Just a few more miles to go! The first thing we ran into was this not-too-inviting bridge:

Next thing we saw was a landslide that had slid onto the road and hadn't been cleaned up. It was blocking about a foot of the right lane.

Anyway, we continued on, over another sixteen bridges, with a fast-moving creek following us along the way. The road became a gravel road, and we began feeling more and more isolated. I mean, part of the attraction of a mountain cabin is seclusion, but it was kind of creepy at first.

The first thing we did after arriving at the cabin was HOT TUBBING! I'd give anything to be able to have a hot tub. Or even just a jetted tub in our bathroom (which we're working on--hoping to move out of here soon...). They're so relaxing.

One of the lamps in the bedroom was one of those touch lamps--you touch it, it turns on/off. So I touched it to turn it off when we went to bed... and an hour later, I woke up and it was on. Kinda creeped out, I got up, turned it off again... and an hour later, it was on again. I did this a couple more times, got sick of it, and unplugged the thing.

The next morning, Eric and I ventured into "town" (basically just a little convenience shop and a couple of restaurants). The Nantahala River was right there, too, along with the Appalachian Trail. We couldn't have picked a better spot for our cabin. There was so much to do. We took pictures of the river, which was gorgeous, hiked a little bit up the Appalachian Trail, ate some lunch, watched the kayakers, and just took in the sights.

We made our dinner in the cabin that night, had some delicious champagne, and watched HGTV and HBO (hey, cable TV is a luxury for us!).

The cabin had a guestbook, so we were going through the entries, and read the last one (left March 4, 2012). It basically said, "Thank you for sharing your cabin with us and allowing us to get to know one another after being apart for 30 years." EEK! Eric and I were dying to know the story behind that. Had they known each other in high school, drifted apart, and got back in touch after each divorcing? Had they had an affair? Was it a one-time thing, or were they going to continue seeing each other? Sigh. We'll probably never know.

It was sad to leave. It's never been so nice to have absolutely nothing that we *had* to do. Before we left, I gave Jaiden a couple of Benadryl to hopefully help him sleep and not be so whiny. ;) We also left the chair up so that he'd have something to rest against when the car twisted around the hills. Worked like a charm.

Okay, pictures!

Okay then.

It's gone.

It came crawling back down, went back up (WHAT THE HELL? How does it not like cheese? It literally walked within 1cm of the cheese three times.), and Eric decided to try to force it down with the fireplace poker the next time we saw it.

We only had to wait another two minutes. Eric got the thing down, I jumped up, and Eric informed me that it was in the fireplace, but not in the box. Great. I saw it on the side of the box, looking like it was trying to find a way out. I grabbed my camera and took a couple of poor-quality photos:



How cute is it?! We're almost positive it was a flying squirrel. It has little webbed arms, black nocturnal eyes and a tail not quite as bushy as a common squirrel's. Anyway, after I snapped this photo, its next idea was to climb up the screen, where there was an opening... into the rest of our house. Eric got his flashlight and forced him back into the fireplace, and it crawled rather easily onto the walls. Eric somehow got it into the box. I think he poked at it several times with his flashlight until it went into the box.

So anyway, we carried the box outside, opened it up, and it scurried into the glorious forest that is our backyard.

Update on the chimney resident.

So, it's still there. We heard scratching tonight around 7pm, so we're figuring it's gotta be a nocturnal something-or-other. Eric shined his flashlight up there, and we actually got a good look at its face. I can't really tell what it is. Opposum, raccoon, maybe... a nose that's rounder than a rat's. And kind of cute. So we stuck a straw broom into the flue leading down to the box with a few squares of cheese. And waited...

It took about 30 minutes, but we heard the tell-tale signs of movement. And suddenly we saw its furry little gray head poking down... it went halfway down the broom (I took note of its size: much smaller than Eric made it out to be, no surprise there, about 4" body with a bushy 4" tail), IGNORED THE CHEESE and went back up into the chimney!

Unfortunately, Eric's convinced that there's more than one. He thinks that the one we saw earlier was white/brown, but the one we saw climbing down the broom was gray. I'm hoping it's just the trick of the lights that made it look white/brown.

Something's in our chimney.

Ew.

At first, I felt really bad for it, thinking it must have been a poor little squirrel that likely fell into our chimney. Eric got a flashlight and said the thing had fur and whiskers. My next thought was gigantic, beady-eyed rat. I know squirrels have fur and whiskers (they do have whiskers, right?), but this thing was too quiet... and it seemed big. I know, that doesn't make sense since I never saw it. But still. Plus, it never made a sound, and squirrels make lots of noise when they're pissed off. So there's my logic. It is/was a rat.

So we grabbed a large box, opened the front door and barricaded the family room so that if it escaped, it would hopefully just find its way outside. Eric put the box under the flue, opened the flue, I retreated into a bedroom with Jaiden, closed the door and...

Nothing. We left the flue open for a long time, but the thing never budged. Eric assumed it climbed out, and I assumed it had just found a hiding place. Eric stuck his head practically up into the flue, and couldn't find anything. So, he went to the bathroom, I sat down with my laptop, and I heard scratching again. *Shudder* Eric assumed I was paranoid and hearing things. I knew differently. He opened the flue again, looked up, and magically there appeared a place where the thing was probably hiding. ;)

We got into our previous positions, opened the flue... and still nothing.

After Eric went to bed and the house got quiet, I heard it come off its perch and dig frantically at the opening of the flue (or at least that's what I imagined it was doing... trying to get out so that it could leave the fireplace, come directly at me and sink its fangs into me). I stayed up for another hour and a half, and eventually I didn't hear anything more.

Today, I heard nothing. One of three things happened:

1. It tried climbing out, fell and killed itself.
2. It tried climbing out and found a way to escape. (Maybe there's a hole into the attic? Which means it's crawling around above my head. I kind of doubt it was able to climb all the way to the top of the chimney.)
3. It's still in there, biding its time (unlikely--I've been sitting here 8 hours and I've heard nothing).
4. It just died. Of hunger or something.

So, in all likelihood, it's still around, either dead or alive.

3.8!

That's my GPA for the fall 2011 semester. I got all As and one B in ethics (big surprise there). I put much more effort into studying for the finals for all classes except ethics, since the only way I could have pulled off an A in that class was to get something like 96% on the final, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. The class I was really hoping to get an A in was my environmental engineering class, since I totally bombed the first exam, and I got the A. :) I also got an e-mail to join an honor society, Alpha Lambda Delta, which I'll probably do... I don't think it'll do anything, but it might look good on my resume.

This coming semester, I'll be taking statistics, engineering economics, thermodynamics, statics and environmental engineering II. Apparently my thermodynamics professor is unhelpful AND it's an online class... AND Eric thinks I'm crazy for taking statics, thermodynamics and statistics in the same semester. He's probably right. Hopefully this semester won't kill my GPA.

I have a new tank setup! I bought new substrate and some new plants, and transferred the fishies into a temporary holding tank (AKA a cooler), and let my creative juices flow. I scooped out 50 pounds worth of the old substrate out of the tank, carried 50 gallons of water from the tank to the sink, carried 50 more gallons of clean water from the sink to the tank, and filled the tank with 50 pounds of new gravel. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end, but I love the way it looks now:



Two of the three tenants in our townhouse in Lansdale are moving out, and our property manager hasn't heard about the third. He was supposed to be staying, but I'm guessing he can't come up with the rent. I just hope it doesn't get to a point where we have to evict him. I mean, I don't care about having to evict someone; I just don't want it to get to that point, because it's probably a huge effing hassle. Not to mention the fact that finding new tenants isn't going to be easy, since there's already a unit in our community that's looking for tenants. Sigh. I'm just thankful that I still have tenants (knock on wood--please don't leave, tenants!). Geez, money is especially tight for us right now, now that I think about it. Over the next week, I have $2300 in taxes due along with $1700 in tuition. Hopefully in a couple of months things will look better.

We had a long visit in Omaha, about two and a half weeks. It was great to visit, but it went too quickly as usual. It's always bittersweet to leave Omaha. I look forward to going home, but I always know it'll be a while before I see my family and friends again. When we left Omaha a few days ago, it sort of dawned on me that I'll never be able to make up for the time lost with family since I've moved. That probably sounds strange--that it took me nearly four years for that to sink in (I can't believe I've been gone that long). And once I graduate and get a job where I'm unable to work from home (and therefore unable take "working vacations" to Omaha), I'll be able to see my family even less. I don't really regret moving, and I don't think I'd ever move back to Omaha, but I do really miss my family sometimes.