Day to Day with T&A

I guess it’s only been 3-4 weeks since my last post, but it’s been cram packed with good times and hard work.  Commencing categorization of updates.

Classes

I have 3 classes this semester, 2 online and 1 face-to-face.  They are going well, but I’m not a big fan of the online classes.  I’d rather be taking them in person.  My face-to-face class is statistics, and it’s pretty easy but I’m relearning a lot that I’ve forgotten since I first took a stats class.  The exams in the online classes are 3-4 hours long each, a mix of essay (I mean, full length essay) and multiple choice questions.  They’re brutal!  I’m doing OK in them.  I should pull out A’s in all my classes.  I have the 2 online finals the weekend of May 8th, which is two weeks from now, and my stats class final is a write-up, so I can turn that in anytime and not have to take any exams during finals week.  Which is good, because….

Florida road trip!!

Tom and I are driving to Kennedy Space Center as soon as he is done with finals May 11th or 12th to fulfill a lifelong dream of ours to see a shuttle launch.  If you don’t keep up with this sort of thing, there are only 3 launches left before the shuttle program is retired.  I’m sure it will come back one day, but who knows when, so many people are treating these launches are their “last chance”.  For many, like us, viewing a shuttle launch is a bucket list thing.  I have been interested in this stuff ever since we studied it and visited NASA in Houston with my GT class in 4th grade.  Tom is way more into it than me.  I’m thrilled that we get to go!  We have tickets through a tour company to view the launch from the causeway, which is the closest unobstructed view of the launch a layperson can get.  We are still hoping to get tickets directly from Kennedy Space Center, which go on sale Monday and are half the price as our “private tour” tickets.  But, they sell out within a few minutes, so I’m glad we have the other tickets as a backup plan.

The launch is scheduled for the 14th, but we will wait around on it if it’s delayed.  Other things on our Florida agenda are touring Kennedy Space Center (duh) and spending some time on the beach.  We will stop in New Orleans for a few days on our way home.  I am REALLY looking forward to the trip!!

San Diego Pictures

I went to the SITE conference at the end of March and had a good time.  Here are a few pics from there, although I didn’t get out that much. 

The hotel was next to a marina, and the views were great. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still dream of this seafood cobb salad I had at the hotel.  I could eat it daily. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did go with my coworker Okyoung on a tour for a few hours on our last day there.  Here I am in front of the famous Hotel del Coronado, and Okyoung and I on the same beach in front of the ocean.

I’d love to return to San Diego for more pleasure than business sometime, and especially with Tom.  I think he would love it there.  :-)

 

Garden

Here’s what we have sprouting this year. 

 

Topsy Turvy tomato.  It might look OK in this pic, but I won’t lie, the leaves look like crap!  I don’t know if it has some kind of disease or pest?  We are going to do some research about it, but our other tomatoes look far healthier than this one.  :-O

 

 

 

 

 

Herbs.  Left to right: basil, parsley, cilantro, and oregano.  On the bottom shelf, I’m experimenting with some garlic.  Only 2 of the cloves I planted are sprouting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to right: cherry tomato, bush tomato, blackberry vine, and lime tree.  The lime tree is Tom’s pet, and we don’t have a clue what we’re doing.  We’ll get to the blackberries later…

 

 

Can you see our first tomato?  Sorry the pic is blurry, I was using my new cheap camera, not my lovely Canon.  It’s almost dead center in the photo, but a little to the upper right.  Yay!!

 

 

 

 

In my beds, I have bell, jalapeno, and banana pepper growing, but something is munching on them and I’m gonna have to get some pesticide of some kind.  I also went crazy and planted about 100 onion…LOL.  Red onions in the bottom bed and yellow on top.  :-)

 

 

This was going to be a trellised cucumber, but Sasha dug it up 15 minutes after I planted it.  I was appalled.  I think I’m going to try to trellis that blackberry vine here instead. 

 

 

 

Other Misc. Fun

Tomorrow, we are going to GermanFest in Muenster.  Somehow we got an “in” to judge in their BBQ contest.  Hilarious!  We are judging sausage at 12:30 and ribs at 3:30.  LOL   The best part is that Mark Chestnutt is playing there at 10pm tomorrow night.  Isn’t that great?!  Should be a good time.

And in keeping with the cultural diversity theme of 2010, we will follow up March’s Irish Festival and April’s German Fest with the Scottish Festival and Highland Games in June. 

Did I blog yet that I’m going with my parents camping in Colorado in June as well?  Tom can’t go because the class he needs to take this summer is only offered during the trip.  But I’m looking forward to it!  I have never been to Colorado with a digital camera – I’m gonna go crazy clicking away!  It’s the season of Colorado trips – I’m leaving Friday for a conference in Denver, then there is another conference in Denver at the end of June that I am probably attending. 

 

Hope everyone is well!  :-)