So my inner European is...

...big surprise here...

*SPANISH!*

*Energetic and lively, I bring the party with me!*

I'm sure Ed will be very pleased to hear that one. I'm at home this afternoon, after having class this morning.
Thanks to Erin for the link to that one... it was just confirmatory of what we already knew...

So I'm watching I love the 80's Strikes Back on VH1... Ed's off to New York for the Family Guy thing with Lacking... he'll be back sunday night - Erin's supposed to bring over da kittie to begin the sitting and hang out...

Ed for some reason thought I was angry with him today... which is ludicrous... if I was mad at him, I'd tell him... Sure, I really enjoyed giving him heck for eating Lo mein with Jessica at Tang's instead of eating dinner with us at home... But he did end up eating dinner with us late, right before Natha went to bed... so it was ok... I just wanted to start getting back in the habit of eating a good dinner together instead of all eating something separate and not as healthy. We ate together last night, which was important, but we ate grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit - not the healthiest, although it tasted good...

Is it so bad that I watch I love the 80s because I love to hear the music? That's the best part! They just played the funniest public service announcement - it was an overturned pill bottle with four little blue 'pill' puppets saying that 'We're not candy" and hoping a kid doesn't come along and think they're candy and eat them. I know it doesn't sound as good when I say it, but it *really* was funny...

I've decided that I'm now in management instead of a hourly grunt with Natha. He's capable of doing a lot more than I make him - and I've got better uses of my time... so last night, Natha had to get out of the bath, dry himself off, brush his teeth, and get dressed by himself entirely. I gave him a time limit and said that the longer he took to get out of the bath & ready for bed, the less time he had to read a book. He seems to be growing up quite a bit lately - he's decided that he's no longer needing to have his sound machine on at night, and I don't have to supervise him when he gets up in the morning and wants to watch cartoons. This morning, he got up, went to the bathroom, and went back to bed. I even got up about 30 minutes later to check on him since he usually asks me to turn on the cartoons for him, but he was quiet this morning. Too bad I woke him up when I found him under the covers in his room...

Oh, I keep forgetting to post that we now have two new members in the house - Squeeky and Peanut Butter, both of which are Guinea pigs. They're finally starting to come to their senses and out of their shells... and they're fast-scurrying little buggers, too. They like the carrot tops, carrots, and oranges. We can even get them to snack when we're holding them, especially Squeekie.

Yes, I know that was a different spelling. She has different conformations of her name, any of which are equally possible at any given point in time, like resonance names (like resonance structures.) Peanut Butter, other than having a capitalized double name, only has the one form. So ha!

I love Fraggles. I really do. I always wanted to be Mokey. :)

So I've started putting to use the Rio that Ed bought me...

(for my birthday back in December ;) )

I've started putting CD's on there and then on the Rio... it's hot up here in the bonus room, though, especially with a laptop in its namesake place.

Yes, I must admit, I'm slacking at the moment. Natha and I had Taco Bell for dinner, and the house is kind of a mess. I got a lot of other things done today, though. I went and had Ed's oil changed (the car, not him) since that was the condition of me driving the car while he's gone...

I'm going to work on a quiz after Natha goes to bed tonight - it needs to get finished tonight to keep up the Hermione appearance...

I had a lot of my students tell me they enjoyed my lab, and that they're going to try and be in my lab next semester... I even had one of them ask me to write her a recommendation for a summer program - to which I said of course! :)

My students didn't do as well as I would have liked on the final, but three people got A's, so it wasn't hopeless. To give you an idea of the difficulty of the test, I think that if I gave the test to the other TA's most of them wouldn't get an A.

Natha's wanting to draw, so I think I might start working on the quiz now... ciao!

So I've finished updating the grades in excel...

so that when my general biology students take their final today, I can grade them and send the grades off later tonight. I hope they do well - if they don't it's certainly not from a lack of preparation on my part...

I'm about to go get a snack, then go to seminar (I think we have it today, but I'm not sure) before I proctor the final...

Natha and I didn't get the grill to work last night (I think it sensed I was a woman and wanted no part of a woman cooking with a grill) so no accidents there. Natha didn't want to go to sleep, he wanted me to sleep in my bed - to which I replied no - Mommy has her bed and Natha has his bed, and that's just how it is.

I talked to Ed on MSN messenger for a while last night while I was in bed... at least we chatted for a while without running up a phone bill... I can imagine what his voice mail is going to look like when he gets to it since his Cricket doesn't work outside Tennessee... I'll be glad when he's back, though...

Time to go track some people down and see what the deali-yo is about this here final. I've got to work on some things for school tonight so I can clear the afternoon for Ed tomorrow, so I might not be back until tomorrow. I'll try, though. It's somehow a lot easier to blog when Ed's not here (since he's not standing over me with the whip - just kidding!) since there aren't other adults residing in the house to converse with. Natha's cool, but he's no Ed.

Ah. I'm sleepy. Natha woke up at 6:30 and Ed and I were chatting until 11:15. Sure, that doesn't seem like a lack of sleep to *you*, but I need about 8.5 hours to be completely within my wits. I'll catch up a bit more tonight, hopefully...

So now he's playing Godzilla...

which I don't care to play, other than in destruction mode (where you see how many buildings you can squash compared to the other players). Natha likes to fight with them, and even when we're playing destructions mode he tries to pick Ed & I up and throw us. Nothing like some family time playing video games... :)

I'm about to fix dinner, and I've pretty much unpacked everything and I'm down to doing laundry, which will take the next couple days... I also need to clean the house, but I might just wait until this weekend to do that. I've got quite a few things due friday, and I want to be able to spend time with Ed on thursday when he comes back instead of trying to finish presentations...

I went to Harris Teeter today with Natha to get DanActive and flowers... nothing like that store to make you feel like a you're taken care of. You have to watch what you buy, but I always feel a notch higher in the social order just for walking in the place.

Man, Natha can kick some butt in that Godzilla game - he's beat three monsters in a row with Megalon, which he's better with Anguirus than he is Megalon. He was upset earlier because we didn't have all the monsters unlocked and he wanted to show me how he could pick Godzilla up with Mecha-King Ghidorah's tail and stomp on him... I'll just have to have Ed tell me how to look up the cheat codes...

So it looks like I'm getting married. I kinda see it as making an honest woman out of me - which is odd, since I wouldn't have thought I would have cared whether I was married technically, or if I just had the person and I living in the same house. But I do (geez, that's a clever pun...) I also can't wait to have his last name, as long yet distinguished as it is... he told me I couldn't have it until I could pronounce it correctly, with the trilled 'r'. I've been practicing, though. I've made it this far, and I'm not going to be prevented from the official-way-of-things because I can't say something right. :)

My mom suggested to Ed that I could have her engagement ring from when she married my dad - since she's remarried she doesn't wear it, and it's mine in the will anyways. I asked her what shape it was, and it's diamond shaped, and about 7/8 of a carat. I'll get it reset, but I'm not sure how. I don't think it's been decided whether I am going to use this as my engagement ring or as my wedding ring, and whether I'm going to have it reset to be worn every day (since I wear gloves & work in the lab I'm more limited) or just pretty occasions and wear a band-ish thing as the wedding ring. It's been decided, however, that Ed won't wear a ring most of the time - it's not a good thing for those working on electrical things to have a metal band around their finger, and let's just say it's not because the ladies constantly chase them around and they want to take advantage. That's what Ed told me, at least. (Just kidding, honey, I know they're after you - that's why I 'take care' of them quickly and with little mess.)

Since there's not going to be much to-do involved with the marriage part, I've been thinking about some sort of gathering in celebration. I'll have to see what he wants to do with that... I'd rather not get married in Nashville, but I don't care much otherwise. We could be like my parents, who got married halfway through their honeymoon trip to Scotland. Or get married one weekend while we're away, then have a bigger 'reception' party sometime. I suppose I should be talking about these things with Ed, since he's the other involved party instead of broadcasting the idea for all to see... I'm just excited, that's all, and it's what's on my mind. I really had become comfortable with the idea of possibly not gettting married, but I'm still very giggly when it's apparent that it's going to become a reality.

I'm hungry, so it's time to fire up the grill, I think. Let's hope I don't char my eyebrows like my mom did one time. Hotdogs don't take a high temperature, so we should be ok...

I miss Ed. He'll be back soon, though. He'll be back soon. (Instructions: Repeat until ok with situation.)

So I'm still at school but about to go get the kid...

and do nothing but whatever he wants to do (within reason, of course.) We'll probably play hide-and-seek and some Godzilla on the gamecube, then have barbecue sandwiches with beans for dinner (even more fun!)

I'm sure Natha will be happy to see me, but he'll be sad that Ed's not there. (Ed, no reason to come back early, but he's aware of your absence.) He asks me when I pick him up from school most of the time if Ed's going to be at home when we get there, or if he's at school, so he's paying attention and isn't nearly as excited when Ed's not there for some reason. I think he sees Ed as being a gift, someone cool to play with and talk to, but someone that will help him with whatever he needs help with. Not to mention seeing Ed as someone who loves him and makes sure he's safe and has the stuff he wants to eat, like chorizo... I'm not at all surprised that Natha sees Ed that way - that's a lot of how I see him too. We're both very glad and eternally grateful that he's appeared and isn't going away, at least not yet.

So, I miss my hunnibunnies (both of them) so I'm going to go get one of them, then I'll see the other one thursday when I pick him up from the airport. Let's hope he hasn't been toothing too much and isn't too tired for some pernicious snuggling then. (Just kidding about the toothing part...)

Oh, I need to mention that Natha told my mom a secret the other day - that he thought that Ed and I were going to get married, which would make him his 'stepgrandpa'. My mom cleared up the title confusion, then told *my* stepdad what Natha had said... and Natha made a face at my mom because she had told a secret to someone else... :) I guess I'll talk about the marriage thing more later...

So I'm back from the conference, and Ed's somewhere else...

doesn't that just figure...

I'm kind of glad, though - now I've got tonight to myself and tomorrow & thursday with just Natha, so I can adjust back to normal before being completely back to normal.

Ed's such a sweetheart - not only did he pick me up and go to lunch with me, but he then is allowing me to drive his car while he's in San Jose... He's just dreamy. :)

Ok, this email took me forever to write, in between watching prime-time TV (VH1 for 'Celebrity Breakups' and 'Las Vegas' on some network affiliate), eating Taco Bell, and surfing the internets. I don't have the attention span to continue, however, even though I've got the time... I most wholeheartedly apologize, but most continue my pigginess. I'm sure you'll understand.

I'm going to try to be back writing tomorrow, for your intellectual fodder... or whatever that means.

So yes, I know I'm a slacker...

I've just got a whole lot going on with the trophy wife/graduate school thing! Please don't hate me!

I'm leaving for a conference tomorrow morning, and I have to finish an 6-8 page critique of a microbiology paper about plasmids. Not to mention cooking food so Ed won't starve and cleaning the house, then packing everything that I need to take. Ack!

I promise to *try* and write more later, k?