Tori

It's snowing this morning... seriously. It was frickin' cold yesterday morning as well... and I had to ride a horse in that weather! At least today I only have to take a Chemistry exam and do my lab which involves collecting water from the creek and titration it to figure out how much dissolved oxygen is in it</i> which I won't think about because then I'll cry.

( Warning to Dail-up people... lots of pictures! )

Right... I'm now off to try and find some place in which to study in the Library... wish me luck (and if don't hear from me for a while, call in a search and rescue team!)

• Pack clothes
• Find/pack all horse-related gear (jodhpurs, boots, gloves, helmet, extra visor)
• Find/pack bedding
• Pack towels (4... two for dorm, one for barn, one for gym)
• Find/pack posters
• Pack misc furniture/decor that I'm taking (lamp, chair, bed raisers...)
• Find/pack all chargers/other electronics. Do NOT forget the alarm clock!!!
• Pack plant in such a way so as not to hurt it/other things (covered in spikes)
• Keep writing things down on the list of things we need to buy
• Pack all snack foods (perhaps most important thing on list)
• Pack meds
• Pack DVDs (including the awesome new box set of 'The Office' UK :) *hugs martoufmarty *
• Etc, etc, etc...
• Panic Done that one! =)

So yeah... I get there around 11AM on Thursday. Eep. Life's changing. Big Time.

BTW, this is made of utter win! Best dorm packing list. Ever. (That I've come across...)

Right... if you don't hear from me for a week, don't presume me dead. Yet. I will try to say "hi" from my new home by the weekend :)

*points at icon* I asked Sheppard if he wanted to help me pack... his response -_-

For the first time ever in my life, I've paid useing three differnt curreancys in one day. Before it was only two. But, since I worked on cleaning my room up today (loads more work to do on that front...) I've handled something around 8 today :)

Bought my shirt.woot! shirt - United States Dollar
Paid martoufmarty for some DVDs and a book she sent me (thanks again! You rock!) - Canadian Dollar
Sponsered Eddie Izzard on his run 'round the UK - British Pounds Sterling

Let's see if I can recall the nationalities of what's in my room off the top of my (without getting up and looking, for then I will get distracted and waste a few hours). All are coins (bills are annoying to keep track of for souvenirs), but I'm giving the term for the "whole" amounts (dollars, not cents) even if I don't a "whole unit" coin: United States dollar, Canadian dollar, Colombian peso, Mexican peso, German euro, British pound sterling, and Israeli shekel. There's more, but I can't recall them. Dad's bringing some more home too, which will be wicked :)

Speaking of dad: Apparently he got a job offer while he was in Sierra Leone, and he got to meet the Vice President of Sierra Leone. Cool stuff!

Not only that, but with the aid of the US Coast Guard ship, Sierra Leone was able to get their FIRST case for breaking fishing laws! Other countries (mostly SE Asia) have been fishing illegally in their waters for years, but they had no training to deal with. That, my friends, is why the ship went over there!

With the help of the USCG crew, they boarded around 20 ships. Most were clean and law abiding (but still good practice for how to search.) One ship was caught red-handed. They had been illegally poaching tuna - to the tune of 150-160 tons! That's a LOT of fish, and a LOT of money! The Sierra Leone government confiscated the boat and is planning on fining the other government (where the boat was from). They're keeping the boat too. HUGE win for Sierra Leone!

Oh, and he visited a chimp sanctuary while he was there. Apparently, they threw rocks (lots of 'em) at him (big ones, the size of grapefruit). He described them to me as "brats" :P

Fives days 'til MHC! Woot!

This shirt is made of utter win :) Seriously.



( Guess what it sybolizes )

I can't wait 'til I get it! *jumps up and down* (Pun intended!)

So I just got done helping Mom outside. Why? Its name is Bill.

Yeah. Hurricanes do NOT like my family the girls in my family. (Dad's not here, yet Bill is headed for. However, in his defense [it wouldn't be fair to leave him out, after all] it did begin to form where his ship was, off the coast of Africa.)

"Oh that's just silly. Weather can't 'not like' someone!" you say?

Oh yes, YES it can!!!

( Let me elaborate: )

Uh... fun? -_-

ETA: WTF?! The news in America is so royally effed up that it can't even correctly tell you what is going RIGHT NOW. I have this funny feeling that it's:
A) Raining (not "10% chance of showers"... if it's raining, that means SAY IT'S RAINING!)
B) It's windy (and I don't mean "6mph" windy, as you seem to think it is. Seriously, it takes more than 6mph winds to pick up a large stick and throw it into the window. Seriously! Plus, based on the fact it's an H1 Hurricane right now, and how far out it is, we're in the 39-59 mph zone (roughly)... which is a tad more than six.)
C) You would think that, logically, you would match your "forecast" of what the weather is right now to what you "report" of the weather is right now (The funny thing is: their "forecast" matches the weather dead-on, but the current report is waaaaaay the hell off!)
D) I have lost what little faith I had in meteorology... or at least the people who play one on TV.
E) If you want to know the weather, buy or make this:

This is just fantastic:


Even better: That's according to the state senator from Colorado Springs in Dec 1999 - guess where we lived in Dec 1999? Yep... so proud *headdesk*

Grrr... my laptop's battery has officially kicked the bucket. I holds NO change anymore -_-

It still works while plugged in, but will suddenly shut down if the power cord gets knocked out (which is fairly easy to do while shifting it)

That whole "I need a new one soon" just became "ASAP"

Poor Atlantis, tethered to the wall!

- Read some fanfic
- Procrastinated betaing fanfic
- Procrastinated writing fanfic
- Ate some Win Cookies (my new name for my Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies that turned out so amazing!)
- Broke my glasses (the left nose pad broke off). But don't worry, I have a backup pair! Now I just need to find said pair (which has been MIA for a couple months...)
- Did a 3.2 mile (5K) loop. I ran about a mile or so of it and got back before it started to rain (badly)
- Took pictures while on above mentioned walk/run
- Made a fruit smoothie (AKA, a "shake-shake-shake" *with dance routine* Blame my sister for that name... she's worse than Aiden Ford!)
- I am currently drinking said shake-shake-shake
- I'm going to train the dogs (AKA, they must work for their dinner) shortly
- Then we (Mom, Amelia, and I) are going to watch "A Very Potter Musical" :D
- Might watch Equus (1977) tonight as well, since I have that from Netflix. That or Horton Hears A Who (2008)Equus, she ordered the other one. Believe it or not, I'm much more happy-go-lucky than she is... which apparently isn't reflected in our choice of films!!!

That's it :)

( Yea for exercise!!! )

Goal: To get in "semi-decent" to "good enough" shape by Eq Team tryouts (September 10 & 12)

I'm running/walking every day (to the dogs' joy!) and also doing WiiFit. Also Pilate designed for equestrians a couple times a week.

I'm spending more time exercising now then I spent on my Physics homework last semester O.o

*Points to icon* That's a Eddie Izzard quote. He's doing a running thing for charity. He's running from London, to Cardiff, to Belfast, to Edinburgh, and back to London all in about 7 weeks - more than a marathon a day! I think it's absolutely brilliant :) If you want to sponsor him, you can do so here.

In a way, he's my motivation right now. He started training for this 5 weeks ago. That's it! If he can do that, I can defiantly manage my goal of 5K come tryouts!!! I mean, what's 5K to 30 miles, right? Plus, I've loads of space in which to run! Wide open base, fantastic!

I might do some cross-country running too, but I'm not sure yet. I would like to (MUCH cooler in the woods thanks to the shade) but we've a lot of tick here, and I don't fancy them, nor their Lyme Disease! We'll see though, the hill work would be good. I wouldn't want to take the dog with my though, most likely. Narrow trails means I'd have to let them off leash. They're well behaved off leash (they "leave-it" and come when called) but they'd be crashing around through bushes - picking up ticks.

We'll see. It depends on if I stay an evening/night runner, or if I switch to morning. (Can not do running during the day. I overheat ridiculously easily... and then I pass out. So, cooler times of the day for me it is!)

On a related note - I can already tell that my lungs are getting stronger! I'm thrilled, asthma is a royal pain! I'm not going to be able to ditch the inhalers, but I will be able to seem like a normal human if I use them, as opposed to my current lame-human status :) Advair, Albuterol and I shall forever be friends! Not to mention all the other meds I have to take grrr! Evil, stupid, horrible genetics!

Also, I'm hoping all this exercise will help me to sleep better.

It's simple, sweet, clever, imaginative, and expressive. I love well-done stop motion like this. (Yes, I know it could be made smoother, but the fact it's "jerky" is a good choice in this case; it adds to the surrealism.)



And it's just SO simple! One set, one camera angle, two actors, a few bed sheets, some pillows, and some random clothes. That's it. Yet, absolutely brilliant!

( Sometimes, I hate being female... rant ahead! )

Which reminds me of a meme:

Leave me a comment and I will give you a letter. Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal. Give out letters to those who comment on your list in return.
sparkly_sparky gave me the letter "R":

1. Remus Lupin! He is tied with Sirius for being my favorite male main character in the Harry Potter series. I love them because they're both flawed and have to overcome people's first impressions of them.
2. Radek Zelenka! He's my favorite recurring character on Stargate: Atlantis.
3. Mr. Raisley! He was my 5th grade teacher. That class was my favorite :) We did so much fun stuff that year. He was brilliant at keeping everyone interested and providing differnt levels of difaculty within the project (allowing us to move at our own pace.) It was the class I was the least bored in, thus, I loved it!
4. Mrs. Reed! She was my ELP (Enriched Learning Program) teach in 4th and 5th grade. I would spend 60-90 minutes with her and 3-4 other "smart kids" in a separate from 2-3 times a week. We did random stuff that was above curriculum level. It was a blast! We made claymation movies on the ways dinosaurs might have died out (I did super-volcanoes!), made websites, studied periods in art (cave through modern), learned about the Maya culture, and LOADS more! It was sooooo much fun :) Plus, she was the one who helped us figure out my CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder)
5. Random! That me, I'm random! Okay, well, I'm not... but I'm "good" at making lots of connections between topics in my head... and it happens wicked fast! So, after a 10 second lull in conversation, I'll say something like "Remember that time in Canada we ate at the restaurant with the moose outside?" When the conversation has been about crayons. Here's my thought process: crayons; crayons melted into the car seat; that happened while moving from Kodiak; Kodiak; moving to Kodiak; drove through Canada to get to Kodiak; long drive; I get hungry on long drives; food; food in Canada; restaurants in Canada; cool times at restaurants in Canada; that time there was a moose outside the restaurant while we ate. See it's "not" random :) And you totally followed that, right?
6. Ravioli! Dude, that it like the ONE food I miss gluten-free. There's plenty of GF pasta, but no GF ravioli, unless you make it yourself, and handmade pasta is a royal PitA!
7. Robin Hood: Men in Tights! Gotta love that Mel Gibson movie! It's just made of win and awesome :) "We are men, manly men! Men in tiiiiights! We roam around the forests looking for fights!"
8. Retried Thoroughbreds! AKA, OTTBs (Off the Track ThoroughBreds) Two of my favorite horses in Florida had been race horses previously. There's Nanny: he was a stud (literally, stallions are "studs") but very gentle. He broke the mold. Whereas most stallions are crazy, wild, and unpredictable, he was gentle, kind, sweet, and reliable. He was a good ride on the flat (knee injury prevented jumping.) He won over $200,000 racing. And there was Mr. Snowshoes. He raced three times, and lost all the races, before retiring... he just didn't like to run! But, what he did like was to JUMP! You had to aim him away from jumps! When he was bored in his paddock he would literally jump in and out for fun... it would seriously annoy the other horses!
9. Retrievers! I love both of my dogs, and they're both Golden Retriever/Chesapeake Bay Retriever mixes; although, Amber has more in her than just that.
10. R&R! If I read a fanfic, I'm really good about leaving a review... even if it's a crappy one (see previous post.)

Okay, "R" was hard!

*Sing to 'Deck the Halls'*

Drive we now across the nation.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Moving is this year's vacation.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Plugging ears, both parents demand:
Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
"Are we there yet?" is henceforth banned!
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

Although the trip is lots of fun,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
We'll be glad when it is done.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
After weeks we do arrive,
Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
And wonder how we stayed alive.
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la


Yeah, you know me, rewriting/spoofing songs is fun :) Ironically, I thought of rewriting this one because the line "'Tis the season to be moving, Fa la la la la la la la la." popped into my head, and I didn't even use that line!!!

Anyways, yep. That's the life of a military brat :) Our across-the-back-yard neighbors moved last week, and this week some are moving into the house next door (not the one that shares our driveway, the other next door.)

It has also "hit me." In less than a month and a half, I will be living on my own (well, I'll have a roommate, but no family.) Eep! This is longest I've ever lived in one house. I've been here for coming on three whole years! Seriously, that's the longest I've ever been in one house! And it's the longest by, I believe, nine months!!! So, while moving on is daunting, I'm itching for it! I mean, come on, I've been in the same bedroom for far too long! It's really weird! (And this isn't the first time I've "felt the need to move." I've completely rearranged my bedroom at least 3 times since we moved here... I would do it again, but it seems kinda pointless... I am, however, packing stuff up for MHC!)

So, my dad has informed me: some of the crew on the boat my dad is on right now were on Barque Eagle two summers ago when we were both on her and they remembered me.

I asked him if that was a good thing, or did they remember me for being annoying or something.

He said they remembered me for being: a hard worker, considerate, always asking where and how I could help, standing duty even though there was no reason for me to, and for being smart. They really enjoyed having me on board.

*blushes and grin* Talk about ego boost :)

He said that they asked how I was, what I was up to, etc. He told them how I started college and got into Mount Holyoke, and they said they "weren't surprised"!

One person said they wished I had been able to come on with my dad this time (though, obviously, I couldn't.)

So, I guess I made a good impression on Eagle :) See, and here I've been thinking that the Captain and crew had just been being polite when they said they hoped I could come on board again, and that I was invited back!

I'm in a good mood now :)

( You have been warned! Don't read if you haven't seen the film - also some book spoilers! )

After mom, Amelia, and I saw the movie (at the cinema pub, awesome!) we went to Starbucks and talked about it for an hour :)

Oh, and I haven't forgotten; I'm still going to be doing a voice post soon, and my "OMG, Au Pair plans..." post soon...

I hate summer. My reasoning behind this:

- It's hot (duh)
- It's boring (no classes)
- I don't have as many social interaction (the tourists scare me)
- It's hot (I don't like hot, I like cold!!!)
- I can't exercise (see "it's hot")
- I had to religiously apply sunscreen EVERY FREAKIN' DAY (even when I don't plan on going outside.)
- I get sunburned (even with the SPF 70)
- My vitiligo gets even more sunburned (albinos don't tan well...)
- It's hot (I don't think I mentioned this...)
- My sleep schedule gets so messed up (my spirit is in Alaska - the land of the midnight sun - but my insomnia is here)
- I get bored

Yadda, yadda. You get the idea. Summer is overrated.

I love autumn for basically all the reverse reasons as stated above :)

*points to time for proof of insomnia* And I've only gotten like 5 hours of sleep the last two nights.

I've always been into science... and by "always" I mean always; I learned the alphabet so that I could use an index. I'm not kidding - age three I was looking up things in an index for fun!

Anyways. You know how I posted picture of the moths? And there were those two weird ones, right?

I figured out the species! Out of 13,000+ North American Species, I figured it out *dances* I'm totally made of win. It can be annoying how good I am at looking things up though... people tend to turn to me to look things up for them!

Alright, so this moth is: Spotted Apatelodes Moth – Apatelodes torrefacta - Hodges#7663

And this moth is: Spiny Oak-Slug Moth - Euclea delphinii - Hodges#4697


I looked at hundreds, probably thousands, of moth pictures to ID them! The problem with the Spotted Apateloes Moth is that many of the pictures are of the moth in a display set-up. It looks like this when it's spread out an preserved, very different!:

And with the Spiny Oak-Slug Moth, the green spots (which look like lichen) are different from moth to moth, so it was challenging to pin down the species!

The real one this time, not a bad spoof!!!

We went to try and find fabric for my Ima's "IKEA hacker-inspired bed-of-doom project" today. Got some really pretty fabric for curtains or something. It's hard to describe what we got. It's thin/gauzy/see-through (can't recall the right name.) It's partly muted-sage-green, and partly muted-brick-red. It also has embroidery all over it in new-copper-penny thread (but it's thick, more like yard) in the shapes of leaves. It's drop-jaw gorgeous! I swear Lashy, you would kill for it!!! AND we got it for 75% off, how awesome is that?!?!? And it's SOOO "Ima" it's ridiculous! It's beyond perfect for her room... and I don't think Dad will mind it either :)

Anyways, we didn't find the perfect fabric for Ima's bed (which is going to "upholstered" by a slipcover.) We did order some swatches though, which should get here in a week or so :)

Then we went out for late lunch/early dinner. Mexican food! Yum! There's no good Mexican/Tex-Mex food nearby (we lived in Texas for a year, we've been spoiled by really good Mexican/Tex-Mex food and have become snobs about it!) so when we go far from the house, that's often the cuisine we choose to eat. It was delicious, as always! (Ironically, one of the best not-in-Texas Tex-Mex restaurants we've eaten at is in Kodiak, Alaska. Go figure!?)

Well, the restaurant we ate at is right by a Talbot's Outlet Store. So we went shopping :D Amelia got loads of ice tops that fit her so well that you can't help but wonder if they came and took a mold of her while she was sleeping or something! I got a cute skirt (that has pockets, score!) for wicked cheap (marked down to $24, and 75% off of that!) I love outlets! Pity I'm not a size 6, because this store was one of the ones that sells all the samples they make for "well, maybe this will be one of the lines this year?" But all the samples are in size 6 (some 8s, but that's not me either!) or in size 18W (Woman's, "plus" sizes, but not just bigger, cut for the different proportions [eg, bigger bust proportionately])

And guess what else I found? *drum roll* The prettiest dress ever!!! It's very "spring/summery", but it's amazing! The cut really makes me look good! For those who know me in RL (and maybe some that don't), you know I dress very modestly. I don't like to wear anything low cut (more than 2 inches below my collarbone), sleeveless tops, pants, shorts, or skirts that are higher than the bottom of my kneecaps. Yeah, "slightly" modest for your average teen... (okay, so I'm not "average"... by any stretch of the imagination!)

However, this dress is sleeveless and low-cut v-neck, and I don't care! It looks that good on me! I'm not even going to bother trying to describe it, because I need to just take a picture of it! I'm going to tomorrow! I love it sooooooo much :) It cost $60. That was half-off the already marked-down price! I don't get new clothes all the often (I'm very pro thrift store), and this is defiantly the most expensive clothing item I've gotten in a few years :) But it's so worth it! I don't feel self conscious at ALL in it, which is saying something! It makes me feel sexy! *loves it*

Alright... I'll stop talking about the dress... It's pretty by the way, in case you were wondering!

Well, that's it for now...

Yes, I'm still planning on doing a voice post soon.

Oh, thumb: not as injured as we orginally thought. In fact, it's not bandaged anymore (although it is a bit achy tonight after I used it all day...) I think I might not have fully dislocated it, just really stretched the joint (sorta/kinda like a sprain, but not) because it defiantly popped a bit. Anyways... I can type, yea!! 'Tis good news :)

Lilah Tov :)

Our dogs are weird.

Lily will eat anything, and I mean ANYthing. She particularly a fan of produce. She'll eat apples, carrots, lettuce, onions (raw and cooked), bell peppers, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, berries, avocado, basil, parsley, chives, mango, pineapple, peaches, plums, the list goes on! You name it, she'll eat it. Once we offered her a piece of lettuce, and a piece of leftover steak... after going back and forth, she reluctantly took the steak before quickly gobbling up the lettuce! So far, the only thing we have found that she won't eat is gluten-free vegan macaroni and "chreese"... yeah, it was that bad tasting!!!

Amber is picky. She LOVES meat (AKA, she's a normal dog.) However, since she's Alpha, we have to give her food before Lily. Which means when we give Lily bits of food, we give some to Amber. Since we know she doesn't like it, we give her really tiny bits; she then holds the food in her mouth for a long time before reluctantly chewing it and eating it with this look of "This is horrible! But I can't let Lily have it!!!" on her face. It's mega cute!

So, the only "non-normal" thing Amber loves is bananas... and she LOVES bananas! We would think she's losing her hearing in old age, except that she can hear a banana being peeled from across the house, while she's asleep, and comes running! It's ridiculous how much she likes them! Her second favorite this is anything baked.

So enters Banana Bread. This do will do ANYTHING for Banana Bread (I swear, she would jump off a cliff if there was banana bread at the bottom!) She's just absolutely in love with it.

Well, we had six over-ripe bananas, so I made some Banana Bread, which I haven't made in FOREVER! It turned out wicked yummy and good, so I'm very happy! Doesn't it look yummy?



( Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipe )

Here's Amber getting some of her beloved banana bread! Note: She doesn't really chew it, she swallows it straight down because it's so yummy! (You would think she would take the time to savor it, but nope!) Also note the eager expression and perked-up ears!

I'm the one filming and talking. Behold once again: the bizarre accent! I should do a voice post at some point showcasing my many different accents. Anyone want me to do that? If no one cares, I won't bother.

And now *drumroll* The Eureka season premier!!!

You know what annoys me? (well, one of the things anyways...)

When something gives/asks for weight in grams/kilograms. That's not weight!!!

Pounds are weight. Ounces are weight. Newtons are weight.

Grams (kilo- etc) are NOT weight. They are mass!

Pounds:Newtons as Slugs:Kilograms.

Yes, in case you didn't know, the imperial (AKA, the effed up system the USA uses) unit for mass is a "slug"... which is weird. Even more weird, the "small" version of that is the "slinch" (slug-inch) also called a "blob"... I mean, come on! Are we trying to get all the other countries to laugh at us?!?!

Mass times acceleration (almost always gravity) is what gives weight. Thus, you have a different weight on the moon. However, if you "massed" yourself, it would be the same.

*Sigh* Now that I've taken general physics, mistakes like this annoy me... also, I'm yet to go through a day without thinking about a physics equation!