I had written something incredibly witty and facinating about an hour ago, then got interupted as I sometimes do at work, and then forgot about it and closed the window. Suck.

This weekend was camping. How can you tell? It rained. Our new motto is: "If it ain't rainin', we ain't stayin' " but at least the core group of campers was there, that being Sarah and Dave, Sigrid and Matt, Ben and Phil and of course Tim and I. There was a visiter for acouple of hours but they chickened out from the spurts of rain and thunderclouds. Wimps. We played botchi ball and it was a hit! And fun.

The next scheduled camping event is August 8 and 9. Let me know if you would like to go and I will tell you how to get there, and answer any fears or concerns you may harbor about "do and don'ts of camping." Heh. But GO it will be fun, and a great way to destress before all the wedding that are taking place afterward.

This is my last week of living in Chicago with my darling. On Sunday he will be living with John and reliving the good ole single days. I can't imagine why he would want to drive back every weekend. :| Except probably because he will miss his stupid cats. Eh. I always feel a little sad right before it happens, but once he is gone and I have had a day to adjust to the house without him, I get along fine. :) Although I wouldn't object to hanging out with friends during the week and stuff. Hint. Hint.

I have 50 resumes to look through right now. I hope there is at least two or three that are suitable.

I don't think I like the new and improved blogger. What is this crap? A prompt screen before I even start??? Egads. That is like making me work without my coffee first.

We put in the air conditioner last night cos it was HOT. I spent the evening writing letters in the comfort of cool air with one smart cat, while Tim and the gamers sweated out the battle in the dining room with two stupid cats. I was in the mood at first to watch TV and ended up watching a piece of crap called Tracker. Ugh. I guess for Adrian there can be only one. At 11:00 I closed up shop and wanted to play a little D4, but knew that would have been a bad idea. I was up the night before, and D4 would have just equalled more late. I am not a rock star (despite popular rumor).

Oh. I also want to comment that for the 1st time in the history of my ...okay I am exaggerating. Maybe the second or third time, I have people comment on my plea for lawyer help with suggestions and comments. Thanks! I really appreciate it and it gave us different perspectives to look at.

I think I am going to go by the lake today for lunch, eat cherries, sip an ice cold diet sprite and doze.

In-laws on a Tuesday night = headache and feeling like shit the next day. They drink too much. It didn't help that Don from the Lighthouse gave us a half pitcher on the house too, and that I didn't eat anything cept that french toast yesterday morning. All I need is a few hours, and the effects will start to lessen. Although I wish I could be like Tim and sleep it off. Heh. Although unlike Tim I am enjoying the central air that Northwestern offers because I was too lazy to put in the air conditioner with him last night. :P

Small comfort to my aching head though. :(

I am popular! I got two phone calls yesterday. One from Callie who I think I will call back today and have a nice chat while at work. (something I do only 2-3 times a year) and from Xtian. I saw the message just before I left. I will have to have Tim relay it's contents to me later when his punk ass gets out of bed.

There was free food on the sixth floor yesterday. I had some. I got sick. I couldn't leave my desk for a long time. Tim came and picked me up when the day was over because I was just going to stay here until the pain went away. Unfortunately, I think some of the food was bad? Or just bad with me. In any case, I had one of the worst cases of food poisoning in some time. I was up until 4:00 AM last night! Good thing I had Stargate and Dynasty Warriors 4 to help take my mind of things (and thank goodness for pause).

Thus, I came into work late today at 12.30. And look! It's already 4.30. This day went by really quickly. Tim is also going to pick me up and we are going to go grocery shopping. Apparently we need food. I am just happy I get another ride home. Woo. I like rides home.

Good thing tommorrow is my mail day. I need to get some letters out right pronto. And I was thinking about designing a postcard, to inform friends, family and penpals of my new address when it takes effect next month. I should get started on it while I still have access to a lazer color printer.

On Friday night I had the itch. On Saturday morning, Tim and I satisfied it. We went first to Blockbuster to see if they had any games to rent. They didn't. So we headed over to EB Games and bought Dynasty Warriors 4, then went to Taco Bell for some grub and watched the folk being artsy. (There was an art fair going on in downtown Evanston). It was a perfect day. The only thing missing was us riding our bikes to get the game and the food.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent playing Dynasty Warriors 4.

It was fun. With a capital F.

OH, I updated the recommended link part, to your left. Check out: Tim, Mike and Deadbeat Productions.

Argh! I am frusturated. Holly and Cyndi here at the office INSIST that I hire a lawyer for the closing paperwork. I don't know. They are pricey, and ... do I need one? Everything seems on the straight and straight with the house and such. It would feel like getting a lawyer is a pretentious city thing to do because everyone is paranoid. And everything possible ligitation has to be covered. Because the realtor is only out to themselves. But then again I am a little nervous. IT's not like I have done this before. But I don't want to spend 400 dollars on a "what if" scenario. :( What do I do? Help!I I need more input on what other people have done.

+++

So. I talked to Tim some more, who talked with the realtor. A few things to to keep in mind. Cyndi has never purchased property. Two. Holly never went through a realtor, she bought the house FROM the owner, so of course she would need a lawyer. Plus, she is very, very efficient when it comes to something business related (making sure there are back up plans, and fail safes, etc, almost to a point of OVER preparing), but that isn't a bad thing.

It's our feeling that these are not crooked negotiations, and I like to think we are enough intelligent to know if something is going fishy. Which we haven't felt yet, try as we might to find something wrong. Speaking of that, we did our home inspection yesterday and it went well! Flying colors! Only three things that need work before winter. Which I won't bore you with. Wanna see pictures? They are up at Snapfish.com : http://www.snapfish.com/home/t_=6251772 you need to create an account, but's it's free and really easy to use! Much better than yahoo. I think.

After that was done, we went and got some frozen yogurt and then went to Walmart to get a belated birthday present for my Mom and Father's day thing for my step dad. As we were leaving a car pulled up next to us and it was Lowen! We talked a bit and then Tim and I headed over to visit Sigrid and Matt for a little while. We wanted to delay going back for about an hour because it would have been at the height of Chicago rush hour (s). We went to this resturant called Beanuovento's or something. IT was was italian. It was good.

Driving back was awesome. IT only took 2.5 hours to get all the way home. I felt bad for the those going the opposite way. We counted four huge back ups of traffic, right on top of each other. It would have taken at least two hours to go about 20 miles. I felt for those people. I really did.

I spent what feels like the entire day working on this application for an awesome job that Sigrid pointed out to me. If anything, this is a dream job and I am a perfect fit for all the desired qualifications. Wish me luck!

I am currently waiting for Tim to come and pick me up. Stupid darling feel asleep and only left to pick me up like 10 min ago. Oh well, at least I get a ride home, even if it is to bring more boxes home. I have become the box bum around here. Sneaking them, and picking them up whenever someone is not looking. I am getting QUITE a collection. But I have to if I am going to have all the boxes we need to move in the house by the time Tim goes to Madison. Otherwise I would be stuck carrying boxes home on the train and I can tell you right now---that is NOT going to happen. It's bad enough I have to take myself home on the train. :P

I was thinking about going out to Nocturna tonight. They have some special event going on tonight, and it would be one of the last times with my darling before he is gone. All I need to do is go home and take a long nap, and then get up and head out. I think I have caught up on enough sleep that I can get away with a maneouvre like that. Hell, Cyndi is even going to a concert tonight and she is more than twice my age, that is how much spunk she has left in her. What's wrong with me? I would like to blame it on me still growing, but I think the significant (good) physical growing is done. Blah.

Oop. He's here.

I am wearing a Patented Tim Approved outfit today, or in other words, an outfit that he himself has probably worn several times. When it really gets warm by the lake, instead of these high 60's weather we have been tolerating, I will wear skirts again. But this Tim approved outfit is all green! I feel like an elf.

I was fine this morning until I reached Foster...then the neck stress started to creep. I fought it off valiently, and talked to a french person I met via Bekah and Greg a few weeks ago. He is due to go back next Monday and until then he is sleeping on friends floors and couches (and he looked it!). I gave him a chocolate chip cookie. I made them, and made them the way I like them, which is crunchy. I am not a big fan of soft chocolate chip cookies. He seemed to appreciate the cookie. I brought them for Katie's lame party at 4.00, as this is her last day. Tomorrow our new employee, Chris starts. He is a comedian. I think he will last a long time. THe only men that seem to last in the adminstrative duties around here are a .... a little off beat. Well, Erhen is an actor, rumormill churns that Andrew is gay, and Chris is a comedian. Hehe.

Oy. Holly is busy today and in a bad mood. I guess we all get like that. I feel tons better though. I am beginning to see plenty of time for surfing and posting and stuff. At least I am going to *try* and make more time for it. I have letters to catch up with too! And it feels like my letters have sucked ass lately. I need to juice them up, and not sound whiney, and like I am doing interesting things.

Speaking of doing things, camping at Kettle Moraine North on Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th. You are invited. Email me for details. Tim bought a Botti Ball set, so that should be fun.

I am doing my best to be bright, cheery and uplifting today. It is Sunday morning, and sometime early this morning (around 4 or 5) I awoke and felt magnificent. I had no head ache, no neck strain, plenty of rest....it was great. I thought "Finally! I have broken through to the good spell." However when I really got up at 8.30 I found that wasn't the case. The neck strain is gone, but a headache still lingers. I drank a cup of tea with two aspirin, but it is still there with the added bonus of tummy discontent. I hate this. I try not to complain about the plague of headaches, but I haven't had a single day in the last three weeks where there hasn't been some discomfort. I feel like you can only be brave ....to a point, then you can complain a bit. Well, this is my bit.

Yesterday I went to the Old World Art fair, and camped out at party drinking from 3:00 to 7 ish. Then we went to the The Duke of something for dinner, and it was VERY pleasant. (Even though Tim had to ask the host if had aspirin at the party for me....it helped but didn't get rid of it). I was nice to hang out with Eric and Kate (and his cousin by his great great grandfather - Bo). The one thing I didn't like particularly is when Tim (suitably tipsy) starts to make public comments about *my* words. He becomes terrible self-conscious of me, even though what I am saying is not bad, or could have even been read in a certain way. At least not until he goes and opens his mouth making both an ass of him and me. He does that only when he had too much to drink, or he (we) are very nervous and in a unfamiliar situation or setting. After that evening we got home and went to bed at something like 9 or 9.30.

Today, I do not think we have many plans aside from putzing because Tim had gone grocery shopping last week. :)

I am starting to be happy about our new home. VERY happy.

The questions I am debating right now is whether or not I should have a party for Katie on her last day. A couple of considerations: 1. She gave less than two weeks notice and 2. Since this is out of pocket and she was in my position, she wouldn't have done it. and 3. I dunno. She wouldn't have done it and since she quit so unprofessionally I feel like there is NO chance in her life that she ever will learn that professional curtesy some people are born with. Try as I did to teach her that quality (that I have a hard defining), she just never caught on.

Anyway. Her last day is Monday. Should I get her a card? Make her a cake? Even though I don't really want too. I think that if someone wants to throw her a party someone should, but I don't want to volunteer.

PLUS. She is treating the temp that we got to shadow her job like she is her personal temp. She is not. I need to talk to her. -------- I just did it. I feel like such a bitch.

My Job Status I have two professors with words out. I applied for one job.

We are going to look at more houses tommorrow. We have to get up super early to get to Madison by 10:00 AM!

OH that second candidate for the job yesterday was a no show. I have one more interview today with a dude. I have no more resumes. I am really surprised by how many job opening we have in the biological sciences and how shitty human resources it in getting us interviews. IF we put an ad in the reader right now, we would get 60-80 resumes of highly qualified people.

We had the saddest little dinner last night of one freezerburned, cardboard fish fillet, one potato and corn on the cob. I watched the Sweetest Thing and it was pretty funny.

I messed up on the email sent to the first candidate. She did make it finally but she was a 1/2 hour late which put us behind schedule. It should be okay. I hope it is.

The new temp that is shadowing Katie started today. I am unsure of what she is supposed to be doing. I suppose as long as I look like I know what I am doing it should be okay.

The LCD projector is NOT working. We have new cords, but no signal keeps coming up with both the MAC and the PC laptops. I put the temp to work on this problem.

The next interviewee should show up any minute now. Their interview is at 11.30. I hope they show up on time. Holly has a strict schedule.

Morimoto (dean of graduate school, esteemed professor) sent me an email that says: "just to let you know that i sent your resume off with a strong cover note to a number of colleagues in biochemistry, biomolecular chemistry, bacteriology, and genetics. i hope that you hear some good news." I hope so too. I really hope so.

And....is that it for now? Maybe that isn't too bad.

I have a job open in my office right now. If you know of anyone that is interested in working as a program assistant at Northwestern University, please let me know. A short description follows:

Program Assistant: Coordinate faculty search and dept. seminars, update database, correspondences, interact with visitors, arrange seminars, travel arrangements, reimbursements, on-line calendars, AV equipment and room reservations. Write the monthly newsletter and distribute, maintain phone lists, bulletin boards, copiers and fax machines, AV equipment, parking stickers, photo boards, and directories, coordinate special events (Picnic and retreat), Distribute mail, front desk reception, answer phones and other duties as assigned. Qualifications include: ability to read, write and spell English, ability to type, experience with word, excel a database software, email. HS or equiv education required, office experience preferred. Please email your cover letter and resume to Laura Red Eagle, l-redeagle@northwestern.edu, Program Coordinator

This job offers great benefits, training, tuition reimbursement, relaxed office enviroment, and pay starts are about 12.80 per hour.

I signed up for the Stargate SG1 scifi contest. Don't worry though, when I win that walk on role, and meet everyone on the SG team, I will be sure to remember the little people.

I can't believe it. I am angry, and want to vent with someone, but can't because I am a professional. I also want to ring Katie's neck. Quitting with less than two weeks notice? This other job of her tells her to start as soon as possible. So she says she will try and go to the 20th, but a couple of hours later changes it to the 16th because she "really wants this job." Good grief. Why bother with the 16th? Why doesn't she just leave the 13th and make it an even Friday? Talk about NOT the way to end a job.

I gotta talk to someone or else I am going to say something inappropriate.

I feel like an isolated nobody. :( My stupid darling is at home and ignoring me online, as is everyone else. Not that I have a lot of time to waste time, but...I make an effort. I watched four episodes of SG1 last night for free (okay it wasn't free...it was cable, and I pay for cable) but I got to see them and I enjoyed it. All four hours of it, and I started a new color of yarn to knit....damn it.

work is blowing up. Stupid emergencies and dealing with high up people that have attitutudes and Holly being out of the office when something like this comes up. Arglhaglujbo!!!!!

Wait. Tim called and said ICQ is buggy. So we switched to MSN.I love trillion. I don't have to switch to jack.

So I went to a barbecue this weekend over at Aric's house. We arrived later, because we had to do some grocery shopping and pick up some cat litter, and then take the red line all the way to the blue line and then walk for five miles under duress before we got there. Before I continue though, I need to express sincere concern over the rising cost of food in the city. Holy crap. We are getting less food and still paying approximately 90 dollars, when six months ago that would have gotten us a lot. That sucks. One of the appealing aspects about Madison will be the low cost of food at places like Woodmans.

Back to Aric's. We got there, and said our hellos to a sick Mischa and exuberant Aric. He offered us a meat, and I presented our taco dip to him and placed on the bench. Afterward I choose what kind of meat I wanted on the grill, when Aric said "we have chickens."

What? I looked around for the plucked, skinless, boneless breasts, but none were to be found. I asked him where they were.

"Here!" he said excitedly, and pointed towards some shrubbery. Tim and I glanced down, and saw a chicken. "There is another one over there." He added, and pointed to a black chicken walking next to fellow grillers.

"Why do you have chickens?" Tim asked.
"Because it's a ho down" he answered simply.

A ho down. Chickens. Tim and I thought for a long long time about this. What inspires someone to go to a slaughterhouse to buy two chickens for nine bucks, tie a string to their leg and the fence, and ..well.. have chickens? He asked if we wanted them, and while I thought they looked cute, Tim said no. :( I suppose. Where would I put a chicken anyway? But they seemed SO friendly. Aric said that if he returned them the slaughter house would give him nine bucks. So. Essentially, get got free chickens to .... add a festive nature to the ho down? If he returned them.

Chickens. In the city.

Unfortunately, we didn't stay long because the bathroom became unusable, and we needed to use one. Plus, we weren't feeling too much in a party mood, and I had a bit of a stomach ache. We went to Wendy's, and then home. On the long train ride back, Tim and I got the chance to talk about the upcoming venture. What venture is that? As some of you already know, we are moving. But for the rest of you, .... I am moving.

Tim got the job in Madison. Yah!

I told Holly last Friday, and we talked a bit about it. I am to write my letter of resignation EVER today (so that she can start looking for a few good candidates). Then I am going to get my resume spiffed up, and write a great generic cover letter? Wait, do I need to do that? Because I am going to find science departments at UW Madison, give the names to Holly and she is going to send out a glowing recommendation of me and my status of looking for a job to other chairs and stuff. I hope it works. I want another university job. If I had that, then life would be great.

Today we decided to embark on phase one of our moving plans. Phase one involves us seeing how likely it is that we could get a house. We went to Lending Tree and filled out the info...and now we wait and see. We don't have 11% to put down. We only have 7.5%, soo......I guess we will wait and see. If not, then there is always next year, and always apartments to live in while we save up.

Oh, and on Saturday we went downtown to a guitar store that Eric recommended. It was huge and had tons of guitars and assholes. They didn't have one single left handed acoustic guitar! Not one. How lame is that? We decided to look online for one. Afterward we ate at Ann Sathers and then went to Evil clown for some CD's.

It was a good weekend. =^-^= I am thinking of pool on Thursday. what do you think? Interested?