We did it!!!

A week late is better than never, but TIA PASSED HER GOOD CITIZEN TEST!!!!! It was kind of a pity pass. She did everything really well...until we came to the grooming, and once more, there was freaking out, jumping, and making all sorts of weird sounds (one of the helpers said 'she sounds like a whale!'). So I assumed we failed. Again. But at the end of the class, they were all conversing, and I guess decided to give us another chance. So we walked around a little bit, and they tried again. Same thing. Then they let her lay down, and chew on the leash, and chew on my hands, and one of the girls was able to get about 5 brushes in. And so they counted it. Like I said, a pity pass. But I'll take it!

We were told we'd get a medal. What we really got was an oversized dog tag. It's going to go on my keyring or something, DEFINITELY not Tia's collar. It's some serious bling. She might get beat up at the dog park. We will also be sending in our "pass" form to the AKC so we can get a sweet certificate (that we will be framing).

We're repeating 10th grade

Or whatever  it works out to be in my doggy class school year system. We are currently enrolled in Level 3, which is the Canine Good Citizen class (I call it doggy high school). The CGC test was developed by the American Kennel Club as a way to promote responsible pet ownership and basic doggy manners, or something like that. It's a 10-part test. The tasks are: 

1. The dog has to chill out while people come up to you and shake your hand.
2. The dog has to stay in a 'sit' or a 'down' while people come up to them and pet them.
3. The dog has to stay in a 'sit' or a 'stand' while people come up to them and brush them, and then the owner has to show the dog's paws, ears, and teeth.
4. The dog stays in a 'down' while the owner walks across the room and back.
5. A different person takes the dog from the room and I guess the dog has to not freak out that they're away from their owner.
6. The dog has to walk in a 'heel' around a little obstacle course.
7. 'Defensive walking,' ie you basically walk your dog around while someone else walks their dog around and you have to make sure that your dog doesn't freak out.
8. Apparently also a part of the defensive walking is something where you have to shake hands with the person walking the other dog, and your dog can't show more than a 'casual interest' in the other dog.
9. The dog has to come when called, and then 'sit' and not jump up on its owner.
10. Your dog has to chill out while people run around and make noise.

Tia does rather surprisingly well at much of this...but she has some serious issues. Issues we're not entirely sure how deal with. Our biggest task we have problems with is the 'sit' while being groomed. Here's the thing: We worked with her a TON to get her to let us pick up her paws and show her ears and teeth. And she generally lets us without putting up much of a fuss. We tried the same tactic to get her to let someone come up to her and brush her...and to no avail. At home, it's mostly fine. But as soon as we're at school, she goes ballistic about it. Lisa, the trainer, gave us a suggestion on how to train her with that...but it honestly doesn't seem like much different from what we've been doing, and I'm not sure that it'll 'transfer' to class.

But the biggest issue we have is the simple matter that Tia is noisy. Unpredictably so.  It's the worst with the grooming, but sometimes she just gets going at random times, and for no apparent reason. And the advice that Lisa gave me was to try to quell it before she builds on it...but I thought I already did that! She's just a nut-job!

So tonight, 5 out of the 9 dogs passed the test. Apparently this is way more than usual, but that doesn't make it any better. So for the rest of the class, the dogs who have passed--all the calm dogs--will be on one side of the room learning Rally O (doggy PSEO). All the nut jobs will be on the other side, with my crazy nut job. You put a reactive dog with a bunch of even more reactive dogs, and guess what you get?! Lisa and the 'helpers' have faith that Tia will pass...but Tjett and I aren't so sure. We might have to repeat high school.

10 Things I Hate About Summer

It got HOT fast. A week ago, it was pretty much as though the good Lord switched around April and May just for funsies. It was chilly, cloudy, windy, and rainy. Kinda gross. And this weekend: POOF! 90 degrees!!! Not even kidding. Is it too much to ask for to go from chilly to mid-70s and sunny? Just for a week? A weekend? A day, even?? So I'm hot. My dog's hot. I think I might hate this weather more than last week's. 

Let's be honest here, I REALLY like winter. I realize that may sound odd, but I really do. I think I might like it better than summer, despite the scads of undergrads who crowd my bus and my favorite lunch destinations. But to put things in perspective for myself, I've created a list of pros and cons about summer:

Pros

• Grass feels nice under bare feet.
• Grilling. Tjett's been on a roll, and I am really liking the frequent grilled chicken and veggie burgers.
• Zucchini!!!
• Berries are in season! I like putting them on my cereal or in smoothies.
• Ice cream every day
• Summery drinks, like Absolut Ruby Red and cranberry juice, mojitos, daiquiris...
• The farmer's market. There you can buy the zucchini, and berries, tomatoes, eggs, bread, honey...and Tia has a good time there, too. Everyone likes petting the big white dog!
• Cute tops and dresses. I don't generally do 'cute,' but summer calls for it. Today I am wearing a rather inappropriate-for-work-but-who's-going-to-see-it off-white, flowy tank top. I like it. I don't have many excuses to wear things like it, and it's fun...
• The undergrads are gone! Buses are on time, there are available seats, and lines at restaurants aren't huge, even at noon...
• My birthday
• Our anniversary
• Lots of daylight
• Trees really do look better with leaves
• That humid smell when you walk on trails surrounded by grasses and flowers...

Cons

• Sure, the grass is great until all the bugs come out...
• What good is wearing cute tank tops when everywhere you go is FREEZING because some numb-nuts decided to turn the AC on too high?! Seriously!! Save some money, set your thermostat higher, and let me wear my adorable and slightly slutty clothes without wishing I had a jacket.
• Also along the lines of clothing, I sweat a lot. So my cute shirts often end up looking really, really bad with some serious sweat stains during and after I wear them. It's gross, it's embarrassing, and it makes me less likely to wear cute things because I get so paranoid that I'm sweating right through it...
• I have to put on a copious amount of suncreen so as to not get fried to a crisp. The sun's bad for your skin, period. I found this out (more than I already knew) last year when my face blew up because I forgot to put on sunblock while I was volunteering at the marathon.
• You stick to everything. 
• Cooling takes, I believe, more energy than heating. And you can under-heat in the winter...just throw on a few blankets, have a mug of hot cocoa and you're good to go. But if you under-cool in the summer, you still stick to everything, the dog's still miserable, and sweat still runs down your legs. Ick. And the only real solution is to cool more which means more money, honey...
• The dog's miserable. Poor thing...and I think she's afraid of the fans. I think she doesn't like stuff blowing at her, even though it would make her so much more comfortable...
• Exercising blows. I ran 2.5 miles today, at 7:30 am...and I was sweltering. I sweat right through my shirt, my face was way redder than usual, and I got dehydrated faster. It was awful.
• I get paid less in the summer.
• The A/C in my car broke AGAIN, which means I either have to pay $75 or whatever to get it recharged AGAIN, or else be miserable while driving, and have a miserable puppy in the back seat.
• Jerks who leave their dogs in the car while they shop...When it's cold outside, usually the car will be somewhat warm enough so that in the hour that the owner is in the store, the dog won't freeze, unless it's a chihuahua or something. But some idiots leave their dogs in the car in the summer...I don't care if your window is rolled down 'a crack' or all the way, it's not enough. I was at Meijer yesterday and someone's poor dog was barking and whining through a cracked window of a pickup truck. It's sad, and it's cruel. I hope that dog was ok.
• Yard work.

So ok, there are plenty of things I like about summer. They're just hard to remember on days like today...

Things I Love Thursday

It's been a really long time since I posted anything, and I figured that a TILT post would be a good one to go with...

• Indian food: It had been awhile since I'd gotten Indian, so yesterday my friend Rachel and I went to Bombay, the local/campus Indian restaurant (the owners also have a bigger restaurant a little farther away that has a killer lunch buffet). Bombay has its food organized by price: $6.99, $7.49, $7.99, $8.99, and $9.99. Unfortunately, most of my favorite dishes are in the $7.99 category...not terribly expensive, but it makes me kind of sad. Thankfully, they have a $6.99 daily special, and usually it's some kind of chicken masala. Yesterday it was Himalaya Chicken Masala...served up with a huge piece of naan. Mmmmm....The best part? Leftovers! Hooray for lunch!!! 

• Tia: Well, of course I love her. But this morning she was SO GOOD, or at least until about 10 minutes before I left. I hope she's feeling ok...

• My rock opera: I've decided that it's my new life goal to write a rock opera. I realize that I lack really any writing or composing talent (all the 'original' tunes I think of are really just conglomerates of songs I've heard)...but it's fun to think about. I'm thinking it'll be a Faustian story, perhaps with Vikings. Mephistopheles (or whatever Devil-esque equivalent I think up) will have to 'sing' in near-death growls...like maybe not so much that you can't understand him, but growely enough. The love interest can maybe be Bjork, so someone with a really unique and intense soprano voice. (ETA: The girl from Evanescence. Definitely.) As for the hero? I'm debating. My obvious choice would be Jerry Cantrell, but I like him even more when he's harmonizing. Maybe Viking Faust could have a buddy...

Next running goal

I forgot to mention one thing in my earlier post, but it's so long anyway I figured I'd make a new one. In my plastic bag o' goodies that I got at the running Expo on Friday, there were a bazillion ads for marathons in other cities. There is one in Detroit in mid-October...that goes to Canada (twice!!) and goes through the underwater tunnel!! And I figured out that I have just enough time to train for a half...so I might try to do it!  And in this one, EVERYBODY gets a 'performance' t-shirt...

Oh, and a bee!

It's been a great weekend!! Seriously, this is one of the best weekends I've had (not counting the one in Dubuque with Becky and Gretchen and Amelia) in awhile. Let me re-cap:

(ETA: I just realized how long this post was. Read it all if you want detail, else scroll to the bottom and I'll have a bulleted list of pertinent points)

Friday night, as mentioned before, Tjett and I went over to our neighbors' house for dinner. It was so much fun. When I said like they seemed like nice people, I wasn't mistaken. Super, ridiculously, amazingly, nice people. Hanna and Brian had cooked just an amazing meal: Grilled chicken breasts that had been marinated in a variety of flavors (one was teriyaki, one was lemon herb or something, honey barbeque...and something else delicious that I don't remember); a lentil salad with parsley, red peppers, and walnuts; cooked carrots and zucchini. And for dessert, we had HOMEMADE cheesecake. So good. Their little girls were pretty cute. Anastasia, who's 8 months old (and almost walking!!), and Esther, who is almost exactly 2 years older. Esther is a talker. My goodness is she a talker. Brian and Hanna are both talkative, but neither of them are particularly loud. Esther is a loud kid. But an adorable loud kid. But we just had really good conversation, and just a really nice time. I hope we hang out with them again!!

Saturday morning was the Illinois Marathon. I ran the 5k. I discovered at the Expo on Friday that everyone BUT the 5k and relay runners received 'commemorative drawstring bags' and polyester/wicking/running shirts. We got a plastic bag with a cotton tee. But it all worked out! I still don't have a 'performance' shirt, but my friend Adam was running the half and volunteering which meant that he got 2 bags, so he gave me his extra one :)

But the race itself: It. Was. AWESOME. Started out kind of terrible...I had to pee almost as soon as we lined up, and the announcer guy kept saying '15 minutes' or '5 minutes' but then '10 minutes!' I had started kind of far back, and it was really hard to hear him. So he could have been saying, you know, 15 minutes until some guy made a speech, or whatever...but I didn't want to miss the start, and so I just dealt. Turns out I probably could have gone (about 10 times) but I didn't. Also, it was a 5k run/walk. I thought I was starting in a good position...I wasn't at the very very back because I was going to be running, but since I am by no means fast or competitive, I tried to start pretty far back. Apparently I started too far back. Or more likely, the walkers started too far up. And wouldn't stay to the right. I wasn't the only one trying to weave in and out of people...even though I'm not trying to set a world record, I was still trying to do my best, and it's frustrating getting 'stuck' behind people! But the run was great. I was trying to push myself, so by the middle of the second mile I was pretty tired. But I somehow caught a second wind and finished really strong. The course was as such that it ended in the football stadium...as we rounded the last corner, we went down a ramp, onto the field, and there was cheering, and I got high-fived by at least 3 people. I saw the time as I finished, and it was not quite a minute faster than my previous time. I got a really kickin' medal, and then I had some water and we hung around for a little bit, then went home to try to find our friends in the marathon (which we did not...we live right by the 4 mile mark, and all of our friends run more than 4 miles in an hour...we were just a few miles too early!).

We checked the official chip time later on...ok. This is huge. Forget almost a minute...I knocked of THREE (3!!!) entire minutes off of my time!!!!!!! I finished in 32:57!!!!!

Then we went to Kohls, because Tjett needed a belt and I wanted to find new jeans. Jeans shopping always leaves me angry and depressed. Women's jeans are sized in such a way that even though you may be one size most of the time, certain brands will run small, or fit differently, or forget about your hips. Most of the time I just can't find jeans. And the ones that come closest to fitting are usually 1 or 2 sizes above what I think I am or should be. So I wasn't totally looking forward to this. I tried on one pair that was the size I normally am. Not surprisingly, they didn't fit and I was angry and sad. There was the terrible back-gap, and the front just didn't fit right at all. And then it dawned on me...these jeans were too BIG! So Tjett convinced me to try on a size smaller...and oh my goodness, they fit. Mostly, anyway... But yes. It is possible that Levi runs some of its jeans big...but what a good feeling. I haven't been able to fit into almost anything this size since 10th grade. God bless running.

Saturday night we had a post-race party at my friend Greg's house. We didn't stay past 10:30, but the few hours we spent there were really fun. I saw some people I hadn't seen in ages, and ate a lot of good food and drank some (but not too much!) booze. Claire made these AMAZING asparagus roll-ups...white bread, chive cream cheese, and a stick(?) of asparagus, wrapped up and stuck in the oven for awhile. I ate about 10 of them, and I wanted more. I could have made my meal entirely out of them. She also made fruit pizza for dessert, which I liked way better than my Oreo truffles (everyone else seemed to like them; I thought they were kinda gross). We also watched some of the local news coverage of the marathon. The news teams in town are not great. I've been spoiled by Kare 11. But they had a little blurb about some of the outfits that people wore to race...including my friends Marla and Adam, who dressed up for the half as a banana and bee, respectively. The news lady was about done with the segment when she saw Adam's costume and just said, "Oh! and a bee! I just saw it!"

That brings us to today. This morning was my once-a-month high school sunday school gig, and I was pretty sure we would talk about Salvation. Until I got there...someone had donated a big screen LED TV and mounted it in the High School room at church. I was kind of joking around with one of the other high school teachers that we should just watch The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (it was in the stack of movies, and it has very Christian themes)...and then Pastor Julia came in, asked if we were using the DVD Player because she only had a couple confirmands show up and so she wanted to have them watch something. And then she suggested we combine classes and watch it :) And so we did. The first 45 minutes, anyway. I like talking to these kids, but it was a fairly nice surprise not to have to try to mediate a conversation.

And then the CROP walk. It was about 5-6 miles through campus, and we brought Tia. At first she was a bit hyperactive, but after about a mile she calmed down, and then she tuckered out pretty fast. It was kind of a cramped walk, but we walked with the folks from church and it was a good time. I think last year was better organized and a nicer route, but this was fun too.

And we had nachos for dinner.

What a great weekend.
__________________________

In short:

• Eating with my neighbors was great.
• I cut off 3 minutes of my 5k time! I got a sweet medal. Marla was a banana, Adam was a bee.
• I officially am down one pants size...
• Fun with folks I haven't seen in awhile.
• Movie at church!
• CROP walk and sleepy Tia!

Fings I like Friday

• My neighbors: As I was going to the bus stop the other day, my neighbors from down the street were out walking (the husband and the two kids). Brian (as it turns out his name was) started talking to me and asking me what I did, and if we knew the guy who lived in the house before us. Esther, the older girl (who's 3 or 4, max), gave me a pinecone. She's super cute. Well apparently, she kept asking her folks if Katie was going to come over for dinner...and so Brian and Hanna (the mom) and I'm assuming the kids stopped by our house before I got home from work to see if Tjett and I wanted to come over! They left their number and I called them later that night, and they seemed so excited! We're going over there for dinner tonight. I can't wait. I love meeting new people, especially new NICE (like super genuinely NICE) people!!

• Reaching running goals: Yesterday I finished the 'One Hour Runner' program. I ran 5 miles. My knee hurts a little today, and so does the side of one ankle...but otherwise I'm fine. The run itself wasn't the greatest...I got a stitch in my side after the first 3 miles that didn't really want to go away...but the sense of accomplishment is HUGE. New goals? Tomorrow is the Illinois Marathon in good 'ole Chambana, and I am running the 5k. My goal for that is beat 36 minutes, my previous time. Otherwise I've set up an 8-week program for myself to go from running 3 days a week, 10-11 miles (total during the week) to running 5 days a week, and 19 miles. (Why 19? If I ever feel like training for a half or even a *gasp* full marathon, training programs on Interwebs recommend being able to run that much for a month or so before starting.) Not entirely sure what I'll do afterward...I don't have enough time to train for the Mahomet Half marathon that's at the end of August, so who knows. I'll take suggestions.

• Cuddling with Tia: Tia is NOT a cuddly dog. She would rather play or eat things. However, occasionally she will sit next to me and let me cuddle and pet her. For a little while. I could cuddle her all day long, so these little times that she lets me are just priceless. 

So I guess that about does it for my first 'Blog Every Day in April.' Suffice it to say, I did not. But I blogged more than I ever have before, and I imagine I will be keeping this up, more or less. Every few days about whatever catches my attention. It may turn into a 'guess what the dog did' blog, and I'll try to keep it from being a 'work sucks' blog. And so for fun, because I'm bad at ending things, I give you:

Movie Quiz!

After reading Kyle's blog post, and failing miserably, I have decided to come up with my own 'guess that movie!' quotation game. Now let's see if I can think of 10 lines...

1) (and this is an easy one) "This....Is...SPARTAAAAAAA!!!!!"

2) "Well Sinead O'Rebellion, shock me shock me shock me with that deviant behavior!"

3) "I'd give her a 'hah!' and a "hai-yah!' and a 'woooo-ah!' and then I'd kick 'er, sir."

4) "Harold! That was your last date!"

5) "It'th a lady!"

6) "Well....not ONLY sheep."

7) "You come back from Elton's and you're gayer than a maypole!"
8) "People should not fear their government; a government should fear its people."
9) "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
10) "I promise you, I will never die."

Ok. Tjett got all but the one he hasn't seen in ten years. Can you do better?

Oh crap.

We have baby bunnies in our backyard. They are living underneath the lawn table.

Normally, I would not care about baby bunnies. I'm not too attached to any of the landlady's plants (and frankly, if they wanted to eat the peonies so we don't get ants, I'm all for that...) and baby bunnies are cute.

But Tia wants to eat them.

She might not know that she wants to eat them; she might just want to play with them. But playing, in Tia's world, means throwing things around, and skinning them. And oh yes, ingesting it.

We have a little fence and chairs around it. And we've been taking her out to do her business in the front yard, on a leash. Baby bunnies are supposed to be able to leave in what, 4 weeks? It's going to be a long month...

Weekly Wrap-Up

This is my first Media Wrap-Up. But I actually have something to discuss.

Earlier this week, I was listening to Alice in Chains' album, Sap. Sap is a short, sweet album, with a terrible hidden track at the end. I try to listen to it...but I just can't. However, the 4 'real' songs on there are spectacular. Three of the songs feature Ann Wilson from the band 'Heart'. Well, use her as back-up vocals, but I think it's the only album of theirs that they use a female vocalist at all. But the other song, "Right Turn," is my favorite on there. "Right Turn" is credited to "Alice Mudgarden." I had remembered that they had called themselves that because not only was it Alice in Chains, but also Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. But then I couldn't remember who the 'Mud' was from, so I Googled it. Turns out it was Mark Arm of Mudhoney. But that's not the point.

The point is, while I was on Alice Mudgarden's Wikipedia page, God bless Wikipedia because under 'related topics' it had "List of grunge supergroups." Um, yes please! Alice Mudgarden, who had all of the one song, was one of them. The other two, with (slightly) more success were Temple of Dog and Mad Season. Temple of Dog consisted of guys from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Green River and Mother Love Bone (never heard of the last two). But of much more interest to me was Mad Season, comprised of Layne Staley (the AIC frontman), a guy from Pearl Jam (not Eddie Vedder), and two more guys from two more bands I'd never heard of. But Layne Staley!! I absolutely love his voice. Love, love, love it. It's beautiful. I'm really sad he's dead, and that while he was living he had too many substance abuse problems to sing more.

Mad Season had one album, called Above. I listened to it on lala.com, and have put it at the top of my list of albums to buy. It's fantastic. I love AIC's harmony...but there was something about Staley's voice on its own that was almost haunting.

They also have a live recording of their first (and maybe only) concert. It's listed on Amazon for a hundred bucks. I don't need it that badly.

Things That Didn't Piss Me Off This Week

It's kind of like 'Things I Love Thursday,' except that it's no longer Thursday and I've been neglecting my blog since my Dubuque adventure. Also, there is something about seeing amazing people over the weekend that makes the next week simultaneously better and worse...better because of the residual mood, but worse because you're back to the old grind. Friends weren't real life, work and school are. And it's just depressing. And so, things that didn't make me more grumpy this week:

• My grey jacket: It's kind of military-esque inspired, I think. I got it at H&M 5 years ago. I had rather forgotten how much I liked it; I was actually thinking of getting rid of it when I wore it out of necessity and thought, oh yeah, this is pretty cool...

• Seth Aaron winning Project Runway: He's pretty much been my favorite designer since Day 1 of this season. I would wear a lot of his clothes. And he's probably the first straight man to win this show...

• Getting my ORP back with a 'Pass with minor revisions': It blows that I have to make revisions (and that I only have until Wednesday to do so) but it could have been a lot worse. I will have to do a fair amount of research to address a couple of the revisions, but I don't have to totally re-do it. So I'm happy(ish).

• There's a guy who supposedly wants to hire me: I met him at my last conference. He didn't actually say that he wanted to hire me, but my boss said that he did. But I did talk to him, and he was pretty cool and I wouldn't mind working for him. He popped in the other day. Dana said, "He keeps wanting to know when you'll be done." I said, "Oh, no time soon...unless you want to let me go sooner!" And then Dana said, "Well...I wouldn't want to let a fine wine go before it's properly aged." And then he keeps talking, about how grad students reach a certain point where they get a ton of work done, and you don't want to let them go before then. And then he said, "I don't want the next business you're with to want to spit instead of swigging." TO WHICH THIS GUY (not me!!) told him, "Yeah, you should have stopped with the 'fine wine' part..." How awesome. And now he knows what I go through. Maybe if anything I'll get a pity hire.

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: I'm only gotten through a couple of chapters...but I love it.

Things I Love Thursday

• Chicken wings. 'Nuff said.

• Warm weather. I love winter, and I love snow...but possibly as much as I love the first snow I love the first week of warm, t-shirt and sandals weather.

• Going for walks. Especially in the warm weather, and with a friend. Or a puppy. Lately I've been taking Miss Tia out in the morning and then going on a ~mile walk with my friend Rachel during the day. It's decent exercise, and it's nice to take a little break outside.

• Tjett. He was grumpy he didn't make the cut last week, so I'm making sure to put him on. Really though, he's wonderful and amazing. And he does the dishes. And is totally hot stuff.

I think the iPad is stupid.

(Let me rephrase...I think the iPad is stupid right now. In a few generations, and a few more years of 3G/4G technology and rate plans and stuff, it'll be very cool. I'll get to that later. Also, I don't know what I'm talking about. These are just amateur thoughts, so nobody get their knickers in a twist.)

I have had my iPod Touch for 2 days. It can do lots of stuff. There's also a lot of stuff it can't do. What I would like it to do is be able to take pictures and be able to get certain Apps for running that I can't due to its lack of GPS. Also, being able to access Interwebs without a wireless thingy would certainly be nice. But since it's not an iPhone and I don't have to pay the monthly fee for it, I'm a bit grumpy but I can deal. And I knew all this when I bought it.

But I really, really like it. I've been iPod-less for a year now (my nano died), and I like being able to listen to music in the lab without using CDs, and I like being able to shuffle within artists or playlists, something I couldn't figure out how to do on my nano. I like the couple of games I've downloaded for free (Hangman and Mastermind, basically), and I like having a calendar that I neither have to be at my computer or even at my desk to access. I like being able to take notes (although my tiny screen-typing abilities are somewhat poor), and I really like having a timer (and music!) for my runs. I like having pictures of Tia readily available to show off (I really could have used that when I visited my grandma), and I like being able to check my email when I'm in the lab so I don't have to waste several minutes waiting for my somewhat ancient work computer to turn on and load.

But you know what my favorite part about it is? It does all that stuff...and I can take it with me. It fits in my purse. It fits in my pocket.

But ok, many will say that the iPad is not meant as a replacement iPod but as a replacement laptop. As it is right now, I can't honestly see how it would be worth $500 + the monthly 3G fee. The best use for it that I can come up with for frequent travelers (see? I'm relating it to the 'Travel' theme of the day!). But here's a problem...who are the most frequent travelers? Business people. And what do I see business people doing on airplanes? It isn't playing games, it isn't reading for pleasure, it's working on presentations and reviewing papers. I've heard that the iPad can upload presentations and the like, but I can't imagine that editing them with a touch-screen would be very intuitive or easy. On a laptop, one can do that, watch movies or TV shows, play games, and listen to music. The only thing it can't really do (and it still kind of can, it's just more difficult) is act as a Kindle. That is the best use for the iPad right now.

Most people who can afford an iPad will already have internet in their home. The monthly fee for the iPad is basically for the internet (right?); why pay for internet twice?

Here's what needs to happen for the iPad to become a viable laptop replacement:

• Wi-Fi (and any other type of internet access) needs to become a thing of the past. Home computers need to be equipped with a 3/4G thingy and cellular data plans need to be revamped so that I can pay one (low) fee for several machines...my phone, my computer, and my iPad. This way you're only paying for internet ONCE.

• The iPad needs to support user-friendly presentation, word processor, and spreadsheet software. I personally don't see how easy typing on a flat surface would be, but maybe there could be an optional stand and wireless keypad for it...but then that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

• They for real need to change the name so it stops sounding like a feminine product. 

see more Epic Fails

Brontosaurus was one of the biggest and gentlest dinosaurs around.

I hate writing about 'unique skills,' the BEDA theme for today. I can't tie a cherry stem in my mouth, I can't walk on my hands, I can't draw, I can't sing (well), and the sharpest my wit ever is is about 5 minutes after something would be relevant or funny.

But after giving it about 2-minutes' thought, I have come up with three unique skills that I possess.

The first is that I have a really great memory for crap that doesn't matter. For instance, the title of this blog post was my line from our 2nd-grade Dinosaur program. I can also recite the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence (with OR without the Schoolhouse Rock song), the books of the bible (with the song), random songs from Music class in elementary school, and the Nations of the World song by Yakko Warner (a la Animaniacs). However, I can't remember important things, or even cool things, like what the heck a density matrix is, the equation for a super-gaussian, or who Kevin Bacon is.

The second unique skill I have is that I can crack my toes REALLY loudly. And multiple times; not like fingers, where you pop them once and that's it for awhile. No, this can be ongoing. When we were kids, my brother often threatened to either break them or wrap them in duct tape if I didn't stop. Tjett's nephew, Buzz, and I bonded over it. And I quote...."That's disgusting. Do it again."

And finally, I am Katie, detector of Canadians. I can just tell.

Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them Bones

This is what I should have written about on Sunday, but didn't.

I only really follow, and am emotionally invested in, three shows. Count 'em, three. I watch other shows, but I honestly don't care what happens with them at all. My shows are Chuck, Project Runway, and Bones. And really, Project Runway is only on there because I get angry when the wrong people are sent home or get to stay on...and I love Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. Can't help it.

I will talk about Chuck another time, I promise. But after this week's Bones, I feel the need to say something about it.

The 100th Episode of Bones sucked. It ruined the show, plain and simple. I know there are a lot of people who loved it but were mad that Bones and Booth didn't get together...but I just hated the whole concept. I want them to start fighting crime again. This whole season, really, has been less science and less crime-solving and more character driven. I am all for character-driven shows. I really am. But it has gotten a bit ridiculous. Occasionally, there is need to push the crime in the background to develop the characters, but the entire season has been this way.

I am so tired of the 'will they, won't they' thing. Especially since they didn't. Because now, we're going to have to deal with Booth getting a girlfriend, Brennan getting jealous, the awkwardness of them working together, and then eventually Booth and new gf will break up and then Booth and Brennan will get together. Boring boring boring.

What they should have done is simply not brought it up at all. They should have kept fighting crime, and the supporting cast should have more romance. Angela and Hodgens, Cam and somebody...or whatever happened to Cam's kid? And for that matter, whatever happened to Brennan wanting to have Booth's baby? That's the plot they should have run with. And then the kid could have brought them together and stuff. But what I really wish had happened is that the only time they ever get together was in the weird coma dream, not have him whining about how he's in love with her for an entire season, but keep having the looks and the little 'oh they're so in love they just don't know it' thing going on until the very last episode ever, where they DO get together and it's beautiful and happy and the show's over.

You know that they will get together eventually. They have to. But doing it now, and having it drawn out like this, feels like a death sentence for the show.

Morning Madness

So this is becoming 'Blog Almost Every Day in April.' Sorry everybody. But today I'm back, and today's topic is 'Daily Routines.' And so I present...my mornings.

I wake up generally around 6. Either the alarm goes off, and that's what wakes me, or the dog wakes me up. If the alarm wakes me up though, it is most definitely Tia who gets me out of bed. She sits next to me (on the floor), stares at me, and PANTS. It's hard to ignore. But when I try to, she starts pawing at the bed. The I get up, I put on my robe, and we walk (I walk, she runs) to the door, and THAT'S when she starts barking. More of an aroo-woo-woo than a bark, unless she REALLY has to go. I let her outside, she has a potty, and then she comes right back inside because it's breakfast time!!! We've trained her to sit while we get her food ready, so she sits on the mat in the kitchen, I pick up her bowl and the food scooper, and put 2 scoops (1 cup) of food in her bowl and keep 1 scoop out for later. As soon as I close the food container lid, she lets out a much more urgent ARoo-woooooo-woooooo (I was on the phone with my brother once, and he said 'What the heck was that?!?!') and her tail wags and she sometimes jumps around, kind of like a dolphin. You know, when they do that trick where they're standing in the water and moving backward? It looks like that. It's kind of cute. Then she sits on the mat again, I put the food down, and she waits until I tell her she can go eat. Sometimes she has a couple 'false starts.'

While she is scarfing down her food, I go do my bathroom stuff and put my contacts in. She, on the other hand, goes and visits Tjett in bed, and gives him a morning bath. All over his head. And then his pillow. And then my pillow. She's a special girl. Once I am no longer visually impaired, I take her back outside, where she does her business and I try to pick up her poop before she eats it.

I put on my running/walking clothes, and jingle her collar. I make her lie down to put it on, and it's a bit of a game. She tries to eat her collar, I take it away, and try again, and when I am finally able to put it around her neck, she grabs onto my arm. Nice. But usually not for very long or very hard, and when I get it on her she gets a 'good girl!' and a pat. Then I put some goodies in a pouch and she sits SO prettily and grins. I get out her gentle leader (it's a head collar and the BEST INVENTION EVER), put a goodie on the other end of the loop, and she scoots forward to get her nose in the loop to get the goodie. Sometimes she lets me buckle it right away, and sometimes she tries to buck and I have to hold her head to put it on. While I get my shoes on, she usually writhes around on the ground and tries to paw off the Gentle Leader. Gentle Leaders are no fun! Then we go for our walk.

It used to be a run, but SOMEBODY (named Tia) has decided that she doesn't want to run anymore. Either she's bored or too hot. Regardless, I take her for a good 20-30 minute walk, where she sniffs, marks some territory, and yowls at half the people we pass.

I drop her off at home, and then go running for half an hour to an hour. I'm currently following the One-Hour-Runner program, and I am building my way up to running for a whole hour. This morning was week 8, day 1. I'm almost there...

I get home and stretch. Tia usually has to go back outside, and she takes her 'baby' (a large, blue, rubber squeak bone) outside with her. Sometimes she just sits around, and other times she tears around the yard. When she comes back inside, I trick her with treats to trap her in the hallway so I can take a shower. The last time I let her roam free, she ate her bed.

It's a bit frenetic after my shower...I've gotten in the habit of putting my makeup on right away. While I try to get dressed, she usually jumps on the bed, tries to eat it, tries to grab my socks and/or underwear, and roots around in my towel. She does, however, 'help' dry me off by licking my legs if they're still wet.

Then I eat breakfast and she gets her 'second breakfast'. I brush my teeth, brush my hair (if there's time...I've also brushed it on the bus), stuff a Kong, and pack my lunch, and try desperately to get out by 8:55. She, meanwhile, barks and yowls (she knows that a stuffed Kong is a-comin' her way) and pretends to have to pee so I'll let her out with her baby, so she can run around and make me late for the bus. Once I am ready and have a Kong in hand, she runs to her kennel, I close the latch, turn on NPR, and make a break for the bus.

The end.

Dilution is the Solution

As today's BEDA topic is 'Teach Us Something!', I heavily debated telling you all about the work that I do. No, I don't think that you 'couldn't handle it'...I just didn't know if I really wanted to write about science, and thus mixing business with pleasure. My first idea was to explain detonation mechanisms...but as it turns out, I don't totally get them either. I'm working on it though. 

And then I realized that I use a very handy equation all the freaking time in the lab, and that it must be useful for something in real life. And so I give you:

The Most Useful Equation in the World: M1V1=M2V2.

When they teach you this in gen chem, M stands for Molarity (a measurement of concentration) and V stands for Volume. As it turns out, this works with any measurement of concentration and any type of 'amount' you want, be it mass or volume (provided it is compatible with your concentration measurement). For example, today I used it to make a 5% by weight solution of nitrocellulose, which comes as 70% in isopropyl alcohol. This is how I set it up:

concentration 1: 70%
amount 1: I measured it to be 5 g.
concentration 2: 5% (what I want it to be)
amount 2: the total amount; my unknown.

(5g)(70%)=(5%)(total mass)

total mass=70 g. Since I started with 5g, the amount of solvent that I needed to add was 70g-5g, or 65 g (then easily converted into mL using density, but that's not the awesome equation I'm teaching you).

So you may wonder, how on earth is this useful in real life? Since I've only been thinking about this for 10 minutes or so, the only thing I can come up with is Kool-Aid.

Say you screw the pooch and you didn't add enough water to your Kool-Aid (or Tang), and it tastes terrible. It happens (though usually the other way around, and if you're using Kool-Aid in packets, this equation won't help you...or actually it would, but I don't know how you would measure the amount you'd boil off at home). So you want to add more water to it, but how much to add?  

Simple.

amount 1: How much do you actually have?

concentration 1: how much Kool-Aid is in there to how much water?

concentration 2: how much Kool-Aid should be in there to the water

amount 2: your unknown, the final volume.

And POOF, perfect Kool-Aid.

Also, you can use this to determine how much booze is in your Jell-O shots and mixed drinks.

For simplicity, just say you're using one kind of liquor.

amount 1: the amount of booze

concentration 1: the percentage of alcohol in said booze

amount 2: the total amount of Jell-O with booze or mixed drink

concentration 2: your unknown; the percentage of alcohol in your finished product.

I should have figured that out in college...

Things I Love Thursday

This is my first installment of Things I Love Thursdays. I had kind of a grumpy awful week, so it may seem a bit short, but I'll do my best.

• Heath Ledger: Since I forgot to post my celebrity crushes yesterday, I thought it would be fitting to start with one, despite his lack of aliveness. As I mentioned before, on Monday, instead of watching the basketball championship, I went over to my friend Emily's house, and we had vodka-cranberry juices (or cranberry vodka-juices when I've had too many) and we watched A Knight's Tale. This was the first movie I ever saw with him in it. In high school, my friends Rose and Heidi absolutely loved Heath Ledger, and convinced me to go see this movie with them. And he was beautiful. Aside from being beautiful, I also think he was a very talented actor (though admittedly a bit whiny in this movie), and had the Joker not killed him, I would have expected many more varied roles. And also that he would age exceptionally gracefully.

• Absolut Ruby Red Vodka: Along those lines, I had forgotten just how darn tasty grapefruit vodka in cranberry juice is. It's not really a 'winter' drink, but the recent warm weather got me in the mood for it. It is so refreshing! The first time I had it was actually in Meijer. They were giving out free samples of it. I'd never seen free samples of booze in a grocery store. But seriously, this is one highish-quality vodka that is definitely worth splurging on.

• Lingonberries: Another thing I bought on my trip to MN is a jar of imported-from-Sweden lingonberries. I bought them to go on the Swedish pancakes that we had for Easter brunch, but I've been putting them on slices of bread. Oh my goodness they are delicious. These were stirred with sugar and pectin (so more of a jam, really), and they're a little sweeter than I'm used to...but I just can't get enough of them. I think I want to buy some ice cream and put it on there. I just really want to eat all of it before it goes bad...if only my husband liked pancakes or waffles (I know. Eating is sad in my house) I could make breakfast for dinner tonight...

• Crocs: They are ugly as sin, and I think that in general they are kind of stupid and highly overrated. That being said, they have their uses. Tjett has a pair of Red Wing Mammoth Crocs: regular Crocs but with a fleecy lining. I discovered shortly after we got Tia that my feet would get cold and wet when I wore sandals in the morning to go pick up after her, and by the time I would get shoes on she would have already eaten her poop. So I tried his ugly Crocs on, and my feet stayed nice and warm and dry. And so, 6 or 7 months later, I finally bought my own, that are actually my size. They are black with red and black plaid lining. The other good thing about them is that in the event that I step in the poop, I can just remove the lining and hose them off. The lining on my pair doesn't come off quite as easily, so hopefully there won't be too much poop-stepping-in.

A History of Hairstyles

The hair of my more-or-less adult life has generally consisted of short periods of good hair with long periods of awkward in-between or need-a-haircut hair.

High school: Long hair. Loved it. But it had lots of split ends, and not a lot of shape. Mostly because I think I had had two trims since 8th grade. I also used to dye streaks of it purple or pink. I was really cool. I'm the one second from the right...with the long hair.

College: Right before college, I got my hair cut off and donated to Locks of Love. The haircut was free, and I forgot to tip the girl. But the haircut really wasn't that good. I unfortunately don't have a picture of that one. Actually, up until my senior year of college I had a bunch of weird, kinda-short, pretty awful haircuts. Then I got a super-cute, super-short pixie cut. I loved this hair. I figured it was fairly obvious from the context which one I am in this picture, but in case it isn't, I'm the one with the short hair. And that's white. 

Grad School: As much as I loved my super-short hair, there were some problems with it. First of all, it's pretty high-maintenance in terms of how often it needed cutting. And then along those lines, the cuts I had gotten in town...weren't very good. And I discovered that whenever I visited my mother, she would have the same hair...either just cut, or grown-out a little. Every time. It was uncanny. And frankly, I look a lot like my mom anyway, and having the exact same hair was just a little too much. So I had, what, 2? 3? years of uncomfortably awkward hair while I was trying to grow it back out. It is longish again, and dark reddish brown. I've been getting my hair 'did' by a student at the beauty school in town. Honestly, I've had better haircuts...but I've had much worse that I've paid much more for. I pay $12 for haircuts now. $22 for color. I love it. Here is my hair, a little shorter than it is now, and the cut's a little different, but it's the same general idea. 

But for real, I'd love to have dreadlocks for awhile, then shave my head, and I'm kind of sad I didn't in college. Because I really can't right now...

Sports, and how little I care

I had intended the sports-related post to be well thought-out, but in light of this dumb day I'm just going to say this: The NCAA Championship game is tonight. Tjett has invited some folks over to watch it. I'm going elsewhere to hang out with my friend Emily, and likely drink girly drinks.

I hear it would be 'fun' if Butler wins. The truth? I couldn't care less.

RIP, Puddy-Tat

And now I feel guilty for being mad at Tia.

One of my very close friends has to put her kitty down today. Pudding, as the shelter named her, but Puddy or Puddy-Tat to those who know her, is I think 13-odd years old. Somewhere around there, anyway. She is a manx, so she doesn't have a tail. Even people who hate cats adore her. She is funny and sweet and cuddly.

I forget all of the details, but her kidneys have been out of whack for a few months now. She's been on a special diet and medication, and that's stopped working. She was in the kitty hospital for a few days on dialysis, and she just can't make it. She was back home for the weekend, so at least she could sleep in the sun one last time.

Her appointment is for 3:30.

This Monday sucks.

I need a beer.

My stupid dog.

Today's BEDA topic is Sports. I'll write a Sports-related post eventually, but first I thought I would grumble a bit about Tia.

Tia is an Eater. Some dogs chew things up and leave bits everywhere, but Tia for the most part ingests all the little bits. This makes buying toys a challenge. She won't sit and chew on a Kong if there's no food in it, because she can't destroy it. Tjett found this blue rubbery chew toy that claims to be good even for power chewers.

Bullshit.

Oh, she loves it all right...but every time she chewed through one of the nubs, I would take it away and cut that part off. Seemed to be working just fine...until she managed to chew off a little bit from one of the butchered ends. I felt kinda bad, because I basically jammed my fingers down her throat (I was just trying to get it out of her mouth) and got it out. But upon further inspection, it looks like she had gotten another, albeit slightly smaller, piece out without my knowledge. Usually when this kind of thing happens, we give her some peroxide and she throws it up. But we decided that it was small enough that it should either pass, or she'll throw it up on her own (which she tends to do when we don't know that she's eaten anything).

This is all well and good on paper, but naturally, I'm super worried about her. Also, the last 4 nights in a row, she's woken me up to go outside at 3:30 in the morning, so I hardly slept last night because I was a) worried she was going to throw up, and b) trying to telepathically tell her to go back to sleep because I did not want to get up to let her out.

She still has not thrown up. So I'm still a bit worried.

Lately, we have been letting her loose in the house, unsupervised, for short periods of time. It had been awhile since she ate anything (that we knew about) while she wasn't being watched, either at night or while I am in the shower in the morning and Tjett's gone to work. This morning, she had a 1.5 mile run with me, a game of fetch in the backyard, and some good healthy runs around the yard like a crazy dog. She seemed a bit tuckered out and subdued, so I let her hang out while I was in the shower. Other times I do this, I find her either on the floor, the couch, or the bed, just sleeping.

Not today! No, today she came running out of the bedroom when I got out of the shower. I went into the bedroom, and she had basically shredded her bed. I didn't have time to take a picture. So yes, I'm thankful that it was HER bed and not OUR bed or the couch...but still. There were little foamy bits everywhere, and who knows how many she ate. I told her off a bit (not too much, because unlike children, you can't really punish a dog for something that they're not in the act of doing) and she just grinned at me and wagged her tail.

Stupid dog. So now I am going back to shutting her in the hallway when I can't supervise her. And only Kongs and Nylabones. She can just deal with it.

Friends of the Galilean Ethics Club

I have been a Christian all my life. I almost literally lived at church when I was in high school...if I wasn't at school or sleeping, I was more likely at church. Why? Mostly because my mom was in charge of some of the music, and for some reason, she would drag me along. Didn't always like it, but church tended to give me a sense of peace and kept me out of too much trouble. Still does, actually. But lately, I've had some questions, so I figured I may as well post them here.

So...why does God care so much if we 'believe'? According to Paul, faith is a gift from the holy spirit, something that we cannot attain on our own. But everybody's favorite verse, John 3:16, states, "For God so loved the world that he sent his son so that all who believe may not perish, but have eternal life." So what gives? If we believe, we go to heaven. But belief is a gift from God. And not everyone believes. So that means that God only saw fit to give certain people this gift, and all the people he didn't choose to are damned? I have serious issues with this. I tend to be something of a Universalist...I truly believe that God loves ALL his children, and EVERYONE (even Hitler, serial killers and atheists) goes to heaven. I have a hard time putting into words exactly why I believe this, but I do. And the thought that God could be so petty so as to deny his amazing love to someone, simply because they don't 'believe'...is not the picture of God that I know, and frankly, I don't know that I would want to follow a God that petty.

Second of all, and this is a more recent qualm, is what the heck was the point of the crucifixion and resurrection? In his sermon this morning, Pastor Bob stated that these were necessary for our redemption, otherwise we would simply be known as the Friends of the Galilean Ethics Club. But...WHY? In our Adult Ed forum a few Sundays ago, we discussed some of this. But it left me quite unsatisfied. The answer that I got was along the lines of God's excessive love for us. Which is great. That much is fine. One conclusion I came to was that God saw that it was the right time to inform the world of his amazing grace, and the whole 'love thy neighbor' bit, knowing full well that at that time it would have been considered extremely blasphemous and quite dangerous to the Romans in charge and that Jesus would most likely be sentenced to an excruciating death. God so loved the world, that he sent his only son to die painfully so that we might know him. That's all I got.

But then why the resurrection? How the heck are we redeemed through it? Or is it another 'so we believe' thing? The only way it makes any sense to me is if there is another party...Satan, perhaps. Like if God made a deal with the devil, and said ok, you can have my son and then the rest of the world belongs to me. And then he and all of his angels went and fought Satan and his minions, defeated him, and then not only got Jesus back but the world too.

Makes for a great story. Unfortunately, I have at least two problems with this scenario. First of all, I don't really believe in Satan. Just don't. To me, there is one higher power, and that is God. Like darkness is simply the absence of light, cold is the absence of heat, evil is the absence of God. So...no one to make this deal with. Second of all...and maybe even bigger...is that I feel it is going down the wrong path to think that God would even make a deal with anyone. People talk about Jesus being as the Passover lamb: a sacrifice. Why would God sacrifice anything to anybody?  I don't like it.

A retired pastor at my church (Pastor Ed, who happens to be Pastor Bob's father-in-law) said that the 'pound of flesh' debate is a medieval idea. But all I really got from what he said afterward is that God loves us a whole bunch and the logistics of how we are saved through Jesus is 'God's business.'

Happy Easter, everyone.

Just add butter.

Hands down, my favorite kind of food is what I like to call Americanized Ethnic Food. For example:

This morning I ate lefse that I bought in WI. For those of you who don't know, lefse is kind of like a Scandinavian tortilla made from riced potatoes. Amazing. I am not Scandinavian, myself, but I grew up Lutheran in Minnesota, so it's close enough. I love it. It is one thing I absolutely must get when I go home (that, and Fat Squirrel beer from the New Glarus brewery...Minnesota is my home, but Swissconsin has some darn good food on my route!). However, lefse is often traditionally eated with lutefisk. Lutefisk is gross. There is no other word for it. It is a white fish (often cod in the US) that is soaked in lye. It has the consistency of translucent Jell-O. I like to eat lefse with butter and cinnamon sugar. Or chicken and gravy. America.

Italian food. When we were in Italy, the food was good...but they don't use as much sauce, and the pasta was much more al dente than it is here. That whole 'dip the bread in the olive oil, parmesan, and pepper' thing? Maybe we were just in the wrong part of Italy, but we got some funny looks when we tried dipping the bread in the olive oil. Of course, there is no substitute for a good Tuscan chianti and gelato every day, but frankly, I tend to prefer Olive Garden.

Chinese food. Think about the best Chinese restaurant you've ever been to. Chances are, they had an American menu and a Chinese menu. If you are fortunate enough to have Chinese friends, they might order for you from the Chinese menu, and some of the food will have been magnificent. However. There is a reason they do not put the whole fish or the chicken feet on the American menu. And I am fine with that.

This past weekend I was in Minnesota, and my brother took me out to a sushi bar. Now here is a more-or-less authentic Japanese tradition (according to my Japanese post-doc). At Ichiban in Minneapolis, you have the option of sitting at their All-You-Can-Eat-For-One-Hour sushi bar. The chef stands in the middle of an oval bar, and prepares the sushi fresh. In Japan, the chef apparently puts the sushi on a conveyor belt. Here, he puts them on BOATS. No kidding. There is literally running water around the bar, with BOATS. You just take whatever sushi you want off of the boats. I have discovered that I really really like salmon sashimi and even eel. I do, however, draw the line at what my postdoc claims is delicious, and that is horse sashimi (raw horse meat). Yep, horses. God bless America, where the only raw food we eat is from the ocean.

Music, My Brother, and the Greatest Band on Earth

What is your favorite band?

This question plagued me for years. As a child, I wasn't allowed to listen to anything other than classical music, and kids would tease me if I said 'the New York Philharmonic'. Classical music is still a major part of my life. One of the best parts about minoring in music in college was the weekly listening lists...I fell in love with Wagnerian opera, and found a new appreciation for Brahms.

That being said, I do like a bit of variety. Not to say that there isn't variety within the realm of 'classical' music, but sometimes a girl just wants an electric guitar and English lyrics sung by one to three people instead of a choir. Luckily for me, every time my big brother wanted to 'play Legos,' (which was very, very often) we would listen to whatever he wanted, and what he wanted was certainly not found on NPR.

Nick exposed me to more music than anyone else in my life. It started off with Bobby Brown, MC Hammer and New Kids on the Block, then became Green Day and Reel Big Fish, then Metallica and Megadeth, Dream Theater, My Dying Bride, Amorphis, and countless other death metal bands (including his own, Northian...check them out; they're awesome).

But perhaps the most important band he introduced me to is Alice in Chains. 

I don't remember where we were going, but it was somewhere really far away. Possibly home from scattering my grandfather's ashes on a lake in Wisconsin. He started playing this CD, which he often did (I never had any say in the matter), and I will never forget the first time I heard 'I Stay Away,' from their EP 'Jar of Flies':

We're talking amazing harmonies, goose-bump-worthy violin (not typical of the band), and my first taste of the haunting lyrical style of the late-great Layne Staley.

I couldn't get the sound out of my head. Every time I was home alone, I would borrow the CD from Nick's room (sorry, bro), and then I found his other two AIC albums, and listened to those. He had moved out at one point and left them there, and I most definitely stole them and brought them with me to college. (I hope he never reads this...)

Periodically, I would forget about them. But every so often I would go back to them, and remember how much I liked them. After awhile I realized that they had actually become my favorite band. Alice in Chains is the only band I have actually cared about not only the frontman but the rest of the band itself. I have watched interviews with them, and Mike Inez (bassist) seems like the sweetest man on Earth. I was fortunate enough to see them live a few months ago...some bands turn out to be total jackasses when they perform, but Alice in Chains was totally professional and had a ton of fun, and didn't resort to dropping F-bombs every two seconds to make people think they're cool.

Layne Staley passed away on April 5th, 2002. I was actually unaware of this until only a couple of years ago. This past year they released a new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, with a new frontman, William DuVall. I am supremely impressed with him...his voice has a similar timbre to Staley's, but it's his own. He's not copying him. But the Alice in Chains sound that I fell in love with remains.

And finally, their own tribute to Layne Staley. Don't feel ashamed if you tear up.

BEDA Begins...

BEDA Intro Questions

Name: Katie

Age: 25

Where I live: Urbana, IL

Where I call "home": Brooklyn Park, MN, but since none of my friends or family live there, specifically, anymore I'm going to say the greater Minneapolis-ish area.

Why I blog: I'm starting because I read the BEDA calendar and thought, 'I have opinions about these things!' And so. I also could use the practice writing, and I don't get to write for fun anymore.

What part of BEDA I'm most excited about: Having a set thing to think about during the day that can distract me from grad school.

Why I'm doing BEDA [again]: See 'Why I blog.'

How I first discovered Maureen Johnson/BEDA: Becky's blog.

Something other BEDA people might not know about me: Well, seeing as how I don't know many of you in the first place, I'm going to say there's a lot. In a nutshell, I am a grad student in physical chemistry, I'm married to a cool dude, I have a super bratty but super cute dog named Tia, I picked up running in November...and I guess the rest will come out over the next month, eh?

Another blog I follow: Becky's (Life in Denim and Flip Flops), 101 Cookbooks, Carbon-based Curiosities, Dispatches of a Traveling Curmudgeon.

A writer (of any kind) who inspires me: Is it cliche to say a musician? Well even if it is, I'm going with Jerry Cantrell. Powerful lyrics.

A YouTube channel I love: I was unaware until this moment that YouTube even had channels...

A favorite quote: "Guns don't kill people, healthcare does." -- what my husband wants to put on bumper stickers to sell to the crazy tea-party nutters to make a fortune.