Ken is Gone

Yes my friends, Ken Jennings, has been defeated on Jeopardy. He had 74 consecutive wins to his name, and won over $2.5 million dollars, the most of any game show contestant. During the show, Ken was doing really well until he missed both daily doubles in double jeopardy and only had a marginal lead going into the final round. After Ken incorrectly guessed at the final answer, the crowd gasped in unison as Nancy, a California realtor, became the new reigning champ. What was Ken's downfall? Here's the clue:
Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.

It is H&R Block. And H&R Block is making sure Ken will always remember them since the company has offered him free tax preparation for life.

Lack of Sleep

I have been slacking off on going to bed at a decent time. I used to go to bed at 11pm with no problems and be somewhat refreshed waking up around 6:45am. Now it is impossible for me to feel tired at 11. I'm not sure if it was Thanksgiving break that did it, or if it started before that. I now go to bed no earlier than midnight, get up at 6:45, and then feel soooo tired the rest of the day. Luckily my last day of teaching is Friday because I wouldn't be able to keep this routine up for long. Although, because the end is near, I have no motivation to try to sleep early again. I think I might look like a zombie on Friday from lack of sleep and then hopefully sleep all weekend to catch up. Good plan eh?
Even though my last day to teach for the semester is Friday, my last lesson is tomorrow. My professor is coming in to watch. I wish he came in on Monday because Barb told me twice that my lesson was "very nicely done." Oh well, I'll just have to have another superb lesson tomorrow.

Great Break

I had a great break! It was short, but still good. Our kitchen was remodeled these past few months so when I first saw it, I felt like I wasn't in my house because it looked really different. A good kind of different. Instead of going out for Thanksgiving dinner, we stayed in and made all the traditional fixings. My brother even made a pumpkin pie cake that was really yummy. It was like pumpkin pie, but there was a layer of cake under the pie. Then the fam went to see National Treasure. We got there early because Thanksgiving tends to be a big movie night. And we were right since the theater was packed, but luckily we found 5 seats together.
I also saw the sequel to Bridget Jones with Heather a few days later. It was funny, but they pulled out the same jokes that were in the first one, so it wasn't that funny the second time around.
On Saturday, I went out to dinner with Matt and his family. It was a celebratory type of dinner for our engagement. We went to Argerio's and even ordered a bottle of wine to celebrate.
Later that evening, I went out with Stephanie, Courtney and Dawna. We decided to take a cab to the bar, so we called the Blue Cab company. They told us it would be a half hour wait, but they didn't come until an hour and fifteen minutes after the call! We complained to the driver and the company, and they could care less that we had to wait that long. After our night, Dawna called the company again to pick us up and the guy who answered said that they would not provide the service to us! We couldn't believe that this company decides to drop people when people complain; talk about shooting themselves in the foot. Luckily there are a number of other cab companies and it wasn't a problem to give someone else a call.
Today, Matt and I hung out with Sabrina and company. Back to the Future II was on TV, so we caught a few minutes of that, and it looked really funny. Maybe we'll have to watch those movies because neither Matt nor I have seen them.
So now we're back in Lincoln. The weather people are predicting a winter storm tonight, so hopefully we get the storm and the middle school has a snow day, or we don't get much so I don't have to shovel my car out of the lot!

Official Start

My break has officially started. Well I'm still on duty tomorrow, but I have no classes and I just finished a test. I really like abstract algebra. My professor teaches really well, which is a huge reason why it seems so easy. I got a 100% on the first test, and after taking this one, I'm pretty sure my next test grade will be similar.
Mona and I are flying home on Thanksgiving and our flights reach the airport about a half hour apart, so my parents will just pick both of us up after my flight gets in. My dad has a black Hummer for a few months so that'll be fun to drive in. Luckily GM pays for his gas, or the gas bill would be expensive! I'm hoping to drive it around a little bit too. Anyway, as soon as we get back, we're eating dinner. I am excited to be home after so long.
I'm also excited to see my Michigan friends. We're going to see the Bridget Jones sequel and then hang out in AA. Here's the most recent pic of Steph, Erin, and I taken over the summer (which is the last time I've seen them!).

Hopefully Heather and Courtney can join us, even for a little bit.

Wake-up Call from Target

If you are nuts about Target and Target sales, the store is giving out free wake-up calls so you can be up in time for their "biggest sale of the year." You can choose from 10 different voices to wake up to such as Darth Vader, Heidi Klum, or a crying baby. You can get woken up as early as 4am to hit the 6am sale. I'm personally not going to participate because I don't plan on being one of those crazy shoppers that wait in front of a store to open, but I think this is a creative idea that I've never seen done before!

Oompa Loompa

Matt and I went to Outback Steakhouse last night. We originally wanted to go to Grisanti's, which is supposed to be a good Italian place. Apparently all of Lincoln wanted to eat there as well and the wait was over an hour. So then we tried Red Lobster, but they also had an extensive wait. We were approaching Applebees but there were people standing outside waiting so we just turned around! We got to Outback and there was a 45 minute wait. We were tired and starving by this point so we just waited. I was so hungry that I ate more than I usually do of the appetizer and the complimentary bread. Usually if I end up eating more than a piece of bread and a bit of the appetizer I'll definitely end up with leftovers from my entree. Well this time, I had about one bite of my entree and was stuffed. I needed TWO boxes to take it home. I have never done that before...
After dinner, we rented some movies at Blockbuster. Matt and I somehow started talking about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory during dinner (we didn't realize the movie wasn't called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until the worker at Blockbuster told us) and so decided to rent that for old time's sake. We also got the first season of Chappelle's Show. I watched some of it at home since my brother has it, and it was hilarious. We'll probably watch that one on Wednesday when our break begins. Chappelle's Show has sold more copies than any other TV show according to EW (yep it beat each season of Friends, Sex/City, etc.)
Anyways, so I totally forgot how great Willy Wonka was. It's really appealing to kids with it's easy plot and weird characters, but now that I'm watching it again as an adult, it's really educational. The Oompa Loompas always sing a lesson after a kid behaves badly and there are other subplots going on. And it's still funny! I think Tim Burton is making a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie that will follow the book more closely. Johnny Depp is going to be Willy Wonka (as of now); I can see him playing the character pretty well, but he can't beat Gene Wilder.

Update

Luckily, Iowa beat Wisconsin, so Michigan will probably go to the Rose Bowl. Phew...

I smell Roses... Wait, no I don't

I have no idea what went wrong with Michigan football today. Ohio State looked good and I know they're not! I'm hoping Wisconsin loses again so that we can go to the Rose Bowl. Here's to hoping....

Detroit Quiz

I'm not sure what this quiz is all about, but if it's on sidenote53's blog, then I'm probably going to take it!


You are WOODWARD. You are at the heart of
everything the city does. You have the honor
of the title "M1" and you can rest
assured that no matter what, as the city
prospers so will your entertainment district
and fine dining.


What Detroit City Street Are You??
brought to you by Quizilla

Controversy what?

I used to read Judy Blume books when I was younger. Her books are really good and most of them deal with adolescent issues. The other day I read that her books were and still are controversial; I never knew they were since I had no problems having my parents buy me her books. I think we even read Superfudge in elementary school, but the controversy probably lies in her young adult books like Just as Long as we're Together, and Are you there God, it's me Margaret. Those books deal with puberty and such, which is still not a good reason to hide them from teenagers. Anyway, I found an interesting quote from Blume that I never thought of before. I always hear that we need to take a side on an issue, and changing your mind is looked at as weak, but Blume thinks differently: "Changing your mind is underrated. Lots of people are proud of the way they stand firm on an issue once they've made a decision. But what you should really take pride in is the ability to change the way you think when change is due. Never scorn a possible friend or a new experience without giving it a fair trial. If you keep examining your preconceptions and from time to time go out of your way to try something you always said you hated, your mind will stay young forever." That's a good quote.
In other news, I had a great lesson today. My students understood it and they even had time to finish most of their homework in class, woo hoo. I only have one week and two more days of teaching there. I will miss the kids, but not the waking up and driving in rush hour part!

DaVinci Code pushed back

Well it seems like I have a little while before I need to start reading the Da Vinci Code. Tom Hanks is set to star in the adaptation of this best seller (and it's still on the best seller list!) and Ron Howard and Grazer are going to produce and direct. This duo also gave us Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, so I imagine it should be pretty good. Filming will start later, so I'm thinking the movie will hit theaters in a few years. I was going to read the book at some point, but now I know I have many many months to finish it in time for the movie. When I have time again, I'm going to start reading My Antonia instead, followed by 1984.

Oklahoma experience

Oklahoma was a fun experience, although driving 14 hours within 3 days was not so fun. Oklahoma City looked really nice at night when we drove in. The buildings were all lit up and it just looked like a fun city to spend a day or two in. Norman, where OU is located and where we stayed, was a little south of Oklahoma city and that was a pretty nice college town. You could tell we were close to Texas since people had southern accents. We went to Waffle House for breakfast since we don't get that in the north and Matt's a big fan. The game ended up as we expected...with a loss. We lost 30-3, but at least it wasn't a shutout! We could tell why Oklahoma is ranked #2 in the nation. Their quarterback barely threw an incomplete pass. Later that evening we went to see The Incredibles. Disney/Pixar did it again; the movie was very well done (computer-wise, as well as plot-wise) with a good message. Their next movie, and possibly last as a group effort, is called "Cars." I will definitely see it even though I have no idea what it's about.
This week I have the usual going on: classes, homework, and teaching. I can't wait for Thanksgiving break when I can get a few days off!

Your Power Color Is Gold You're dependable and hard working. You never miss a deadline - and you're never late. You have a clear sense of right and wrong. You're very detail oriented. You get frustrated when your friends are sloppy - or when they don't follow through. You're on top of things, and you wish that everyone else was! What's Your Power Color? Take This Quiz :-)

Code Red

At Scott, the kids had a Code Red drill. This is a newer drill that began a few years after the Columbine incidents and other ones like that. Instead of a fire drill or tornado drill where there are specific instructions to evacuate or stay in the classroom respectively, the Code Red can consist of having a lockdown to running to the nearest room/exit. I think it's hard to practice this drill because of the different directions associated with the situations that can arise in schools. These situations include, but are not confined to, flooding, sick individuals where the paramedics need to come in, shootings, and bomb threats. I have read many statistics that bomb threats and actual shootings in schools have gone down despite the rising fear the media has helped to fuel. And although inner city schools have had many incidences of shootings in the past, only when an upper middle-class suburban school is a target of media-frenzy do schools around the country have a plan of action. Riiight. I guess it's better late than never.
We also had an assembly as well as a substitute teacher in class, so with the Code Red and this other stuff, the kids were WILD. This was probably their favorite school day of the year! The assembly was not bad; it was a veteran's day tribute where the orchestra and choir played patriotic songs. I thought we had some really talented students singing and playing! I kept thinking about when I was in the middle school orchestra and choir, ahh memories. The other kids watching looked bored, but it's funny how now that I am a teacher, I am awed by the talent I see around me!
In a little while, I am going to start packing and Matt and I are heading to Oklahoma around 3. Hopefully we get there by 10pm...it's a long drive!

Girl Power

I got my Glamour magazine over a week ago, and finally started reading it yesterday. I actually subscribe to UsWeekly, but they were having some sale and so I got to pick two other magazine subscriptions to go along with UsWeekly (most of the other free magazine choices were really bad or unheard of). Anyways...so there was an interesting blurb about women and the holiday season. The Church of England reported that the three wise men who brought gifts to baby Jesus may have actually been women. There wasn't any explanation as to why this was so I found an article at Cnn.com about it. I don't believe everything the Church of England reports, but it makes more sense that women would buy the baby gifts, haha.
Also, according to Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, only female reindeer keep their antlers through the winter, meaning that Santa's team, from Dasher to Blitzen (we may as well put Rudolph in here too), are shes!

Engagement Party!

Mona and Sujith are having an engagment party in New Orleans this weekend. It'll be on the smaller side with a gathering of 25-30 people at a restaurant. My parents and brother are flying down for it. I can't go, but hopefully I'll be visiting Mona in late February/early March for her bachelorette party. I'm not sure if I want an engagement party, maybe a bridal shower. Too many parties leading up to the wedding may get tiring! Matt and I still have to set a date, we're probably going to figure that out during winter break so we can talk to both of our parents. Although, we do have time since we'll be getting married in 2006.

Oklahoma Weekend

This upcoming weekend, Matt and I are driving to Oklahoma to watch them beat our team. I'm not being pessimistic, I really believe there is no way our unranked team can beat one of the top ranked teams in the country. Our quarterback and basically everyone else, but Ross, are so bad that it's like watching my high school team play (ok maybe a smidgen better). The drive is over 6 hours so we're going to leave on Friday after classes for the Saturday game. We have all day on Saturday before the 6:00pm kickoff to explore the wonders of Norman. A friend of a friend I met in San Diego over the summer actually goes to the school and gave me her number so she could recommend some restaurants/bars. I called her a little over a week ago, and she hasn't gotten back to me. So much for that contact. I will try calling her again later this week, but I'm not banking on her showing us around. Oh well.
If we lose this week we will be 3-4 in the conference and then HAVE to beat Colorado to be bowl eligible. Coach Callahan is new this year, so he'll probably get a lot of heat if we don't go to a bowl. He practically came in on a float at the beginning of the year since our team was bad last year (although not as bad as this year, surprisingly) and we needed someone who could remedy it. He had open practices, started a charity run to benefit the school and our libraries, and basically was very welcome in Lincoln. Now, people are really frustrated with him. I'm sure he'll stay, though, since I think we have some good recruits coming in next year (after Matt and I leave) and he'll have some talent to work with.
Here's Matt and I at the 5k Charity Run that will hopefully have a second chance to run next year!

Watching TV

I watched Green Mile last night. It was very well done, but I was disturbed by the whole situation of a death row cell block. The inmates were crazy and some of the guards were corrupt, which I imagine is similar to real life. I'm not sure where I stand on capital punishment. I think under no circumstance is it right to kill, but then, I'm not sure how I would feel if I were personally involved and a guy had killed someone I love. Tricky... Hopefully I'll never have to worry about where I stand on this.
In other news, I was watching Oprah the other day. I think it comes on during Jeopardy so I rarely watch Oprah, even though when I do watch, I'm always entertained. Julia Roberts was on and she is great with audiences. Sometimes celebrities can be very good actors and are just a bore during interviews, such as Tom Cruise (who laughs like a hyena because he's always nervous) or especially Edward Norton (it's torture trying to stay awake during his interviews!). However, Julia Roberts was genuine and everyone was eager to hear what she would say next. She's in this movie coming out in December called "Closer." It is about two couples, Julia Roberts/Clive Owen and Natalie Portman(who was also a bore)/Jude Law, who are very happy together, but ex-lovers Julia Roberts and Jude Law carry on this affair that messes up everything. Normally I'm not into this kind of stuff, but hey it looks good.
I'm off to a student research conference for a few hours and take notes.

NOSMO KING

Although there were many bad outcomes of the election, one outcome was great for the city of Lincoln, the smoking ban!!! There will be no smoking in public places starting November 29th. The three exceptions are hotels and motels (which can set aside 20% of their rooms for smoking guests), laboratories that may still conduct research on smoking issues (kind of crazy that this falls under the smoking ban if it were not an exception), and outdoor seating areas.

There was a similar proposition that was brought up last year that would allow bars/restaurants to remain as smoking places despite the ban if more than a certain percentage of their profits came from anything other than food. I thought this was ridiculous since this defeats the whole purpose of reducing second-hand smoke and you know some bar owners, etc. paid some government worker to put that loophole in. However, that proposition didn't pass last year. At first I was upset because I wanted some restriction on smoking, but the ban that was passed on Tuesday is way better.

I like the ban on smoking in public places for many reasons. First of all, people won't be as likely to inhale second-hand smoke, which causes the same kind of damage as it does in smokers, yes even death. Secondly, asthmatics and allergy sufferers won't have asthma/allergy attacks, which again may cause death. Thirdly, it'll make getting a table faster at a restaurant since you won't have to wait for a non-smoking table. Finally, my clothes and hair won't reek of smoke ten minutes after I step into a bar/restaurant.

Whenever I think of NO SMOKING, I think of NOSMO KING. If you read Cleary's Ramona books, you know what I'm talking about, and hence the subject heading.

These past few days

It was nice having my sister visit me, we did a lot of fun stuff. Matt and I took her to some great restaurants, although not our fav Cajun place since my sister is from Louisiana and gets it all the time! I showed her around campus, which she said was really beautiful. Our campus is really nice, people that have visited us always say that. Here's Mona blending into the football sculpture in front our our stadium entrance.

We also went to Starlight Lounge:
Matt is drinking a banana split martini, Mona got a Snickers martini, and I have the classic cosmo. We saw Napolean Dynamite, which is really weird in an MTV way, but cute. One thing we did that was out of the ordinary was go to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard:

It was about 10-15 miles outside of Lincoln, near all of these beautiful farms. When we arrived, all we saw was a house with kids playing in the front. Strangely enough, we were at the right address. The orchard was out back and we walked around and saw several kinds of apples and pumpkins. It was perfect weather outside, the air was crisp, but it was sunny. The family owned two dogs that kept following us around. We bought some cider to go (they ran out of donuts!), and as we were ready to go, one of their dogs, a sheepdog, was blocking the driveway. I honked to scare it away and it just sat there with its tongue hanging out. The family didn't seem to be around so I veered around the dog and made it back on the road with the dog chasing us. haha I think dogs are great. I've never had one before, because my parents aren't crazy about having pets in the house. I wouldn't mind having a smaller short haired dog that doesn't shed too much like the Canaan. Matt doesn't want to have a dog, so that might be a tricky decision.
In other news, Matt was hired at the Attorney General's office in Lincoln. He is planning to work there at least for the rest of the semester for some experience. Congrats Matt :)
Right now, I'm watching the election coverage! I could be totally off about this, but as of now, it looks like Bush is going to win it. Matt and I are watching MSNBC and CNN and the country is all red (the color that is representative of Bush).