November

You might be wondering... "Huh, it certainly has been a long time since ginny updated her blog." Well, I've been thinking the same thing. Since the beginning of November I've been house sitting for Claudia who has no internet. Hmmm... where have a left off.

At the beginning of the month I went to Dallas, Texas for the National NODA conference. It was at this amazing hotel with a rotating cocktail bar 50 stories up! Unfortunately no pictures of the hotel itself, but I did take a bunch of pictures at the Dallas Aquarium. Guess what I saw for the very first time....
MANATEES!!!! It was a very weird aquarium. You start in the canopy and move your way down looking at all sorts of animals all the way down. Until you get to the underwater stuff, and then they just show you weird museum like exhibits of different ocean scenes from all over the world. It was very odd. The highlight definitely being the manatees, and the turtle threesome:
The conference was okay, got some good ideas, but unfortunately was mainly preoccupied with homework and being away from Wrangler for the first time. According to Kara (the doggie-sitter and my cabin-connected neighbor) he did fine, except for the bag of Peanut Butter Cups he ate (foil and all). Well, he must have had a mighty big tummy ache, but other than that he's good.

So since I got back from Dallas on Halloween, (I was Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction and the only living proof is the polaroid tacked to the bulletin board at work) I've been staying at Claudia's. It was pretty nice to have a heated garage, a dishwasher, washer and dryer, and a shower/indoor toilet. To be honest, it kinda it's made me pretty spoiled. Heidi (Claudia's close friend from Juneau) stayed at the house for about a week and a half and was very welcome company. It was like having a awesome roommate again, only minus the shitty parts. We did a lot of movie watching (Knocked Up and Ratatouille) and KNITTING! (i finished my clapotis hat)
And practically finished my first Monkey Sock.

It was said to have her go. I think Wrangler missed her the most (she let him lick her ice cream bowl).

On Wednesday, the day before break, I applied for the job of Student Recruitment and Retention coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts. I talked to Dana and it sounds awesome. I also talked to Eric (Alex's husband) and he totally encouraged me, which is pretty awesome. I have a feeling he's on the committee. SWEET. The job closes on December 7th, right in the middle of crazy-ass Orientation, finals, papers, and presentation time. Wish me luck.

Shorty after Heidi left it was Thanksgiving time!!! My favorite holiday. Pam came up from Anchorage and it was really nice to have somebody to share the big house with again. She got in on Wednesday night and Thursday was spent COOKING and knitting.
I made a 21 lbs. turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, green bean cassarole, corn, black olives, cranberry sauce, rolls, 2 pumpkin pies, a razzleberry pie, and a pudding pie. I feel guilty about the amount of food that was cooked that day, and even guiltier about the amount of left-overs there were. Luckly Lael, Mark, Eli, Heather, Nick and his dog Cora, and Ben and his dog Bailey all came to eat! It was really awesome. For some it was their second or third dinner that day, but it meant a lot to me to have them show.
After dinner we watched Ratatouille and played Apples to Apples and Taboo. Everybody went home full and with left-overs. There was practically a pie for everyone.

"Black Friday" failed to be too black for Pam and I. We slept in till after 10am and ate breakfast at home and left the house around noon. We went to Inua wool shoppe, Nothern Threads, If Only, Memories and More and Country Kitchen. Pam bought tons of fabric and I bought tons of yarn. I picked up a nice leather knitting bag, and more SOAK. (See August 2nd post). We spent the rest of the weekend knitting, eating out, shopping and watching Family Guy. In all is was a super fun weekend that probably should've been spend more doing homework than homework. But I finished the 2nd of 4 scarves that I have to made...
...and cast on the 3rd.
So, that was November in a nutshell really. I came home for the first time in a month on Wednesday and it's pretty lonely and dreary here. The winter is really getting to me. The fact that I have 2 huge papers and 2 huge presentations in the next 2 weeks doesn't really help much either. I just have to keep telling myself, "I'll be home in less than 22 days!" and in less than that my classes will be done and I will at least have a month long break. Then we'll do it all again next semester.
I can't wait for summer... Only 5 more months to go.