happy birthday

happy, happy birthday to my friend datlowen, whom it feels like i've known a lot longer than (get this, N) five years. love you and miss you to pieces. mwah.

morning roundup

up at an ungodly hour this morning to take the car to the shop again for the check engine light (mentioned a few days ago). i'm confidently expecting it to be either nothing or the same problem it was last time, and thus cost me no money (but a bit of inconvenience). the result was that i'd been up and felt like i had had part of a day by the time i went to my 9:30 class. that's a strange feeling. i liked it, but i don't know if i'm prepared to go to bed early enough on a regular basis to get up that early and maintain that awake-ness for morning activities.

turned in my application for degree, and signed up for the french proficiency exam next friday (next friday! i'd thought it was some time in october!). am really on track to finish this thing in december and graduate in january. dude.

with this in mind, have been looking for jobs -- including temp assignments, since after all, i hope only to be working for eight months -- in the DC area beginning in january. any DC-area folks with leads are welcome to comment here and tell me you want to hire me. :-)

a complete stranger said, as we passed on the sidewalk just now, that she liked my umbrella. (it's bright red with the word "ART" splashed across it multiple times. from the art institute of chicago. a high school graduation present.) i said "thanks!" and smiled. (what else do you say?)

am not 100% recovered from the Head Cold Of Doom, but am feeling about 99.44%. still a little sniffly and a little gnurry in the throat, but my god, the difference between tuesday and today -- incredible. incredible.

Not Using Betas, or, Like, Workmanship Doesn't Matter, Does It?

Ooh! If you want, you can come to my house. I'd love it if you came. We can have some dinner. I'll cook! But I'm not going to follow a recipe or measure any ingredients or anything. I don't believe in that kind of rigidity. And I've never made this dish before, but I'm not going to tell someone what I'm making and and ask her if she thinks it looks/smells/tastes like what I'm trying for. It's more important to me to just put things in as I feel the impulse.

Anyway, when you come for dinner, we can sit in my new dining room chairs, at my new dining room table. I made the table and chairs myself! But I didn't sand the lumber first -- hope you don't mind. And I didn't use a square or a level or anything, so you might want to hold on to your plate so it doesn't slide off the table, and the chairs might be a little wobbly. I guess the chairs might fall apart completely. [shrug] Sorry. But, you know, this is the shape the furniture had in my head, so I didn't figure I needed someone to try it out and make sure it actually worked before I invited people over. I mean, people, when I invite them, they don't have to come.

GRE

who thinks i should retake the GRE?

i took it in december of 1999, so ( the scores should still be valid: )