People Suck

Why do people have to be so immature and stupid?

Two Harbor's Honking Tree Felled by Vandals

I honestly don't know why this news story is bothering me so much, I mean, its just a tree. But it is the sheer pointlessness of the whole thing. Why would someone decide that it would be cool to cut down a seventy-five foot tree that had served as a landmark for decades?

There is only one reason. People suck.

Thanks Mother Nature!

Yesterday did in fact get better (the biggest negative being my feeling of unwellness). Sometime in the afternoon when I was sitting working in my ridiculously hot stuffy office it got to the point where I felt like if I sat there one more minute I was going to pass out, which is not a typical feeling for me to get.

So I printed off the article I was reading and booked it outside, bought a smoothy and laid in the cool grass reading. MUCH BETTER. Smoothies fix a lot of things - the kind with ice and fruit juice. So refreshing. My afternoon class went fine.

After my class ended at 5:40 we rushed home and I started baking - mixed up the batter for that strawberry peanut butter dessert and threw it in the oven, then cut up strawberries while it was baking. It came out of the oven at 6:57pm, and I was supposed to be at book club at 7pm!! So, I stuck it in the car straight out of the oven and arrived at 7:10, applying the toppings once I was already there. It was a big hit, everyone seemed to like it and want the recipe. Book club was a lot of fun, we had some good conversation about the book, but mostly a lot of banter, as usual. Great, hilarious stories.

I found out late yesterday afternoon that I am scheduled to take a civil service exam with the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission on Friday morning. The biggest problem with this is not the exam itself, its the fact that I need to get an undergraduate transcript by that time to be eligible. I am quite stressed about it. If I fax Truman today and then call and make sure they got the fax and try to get them to prioritize my order, then it should be overnighed Wednesday to Thursday, but it is still very stressful! Wish me luck.

Today is much better than yesterday. I am seriously loving the weather!! Cool.. perhaps 65 degrees? And overcast, with expectations of thunderstorms later. When I walked the dog this morning the air was laced with the smells of fresh mown lawn and lilacs, it was great. I can sit here with the window open, with a cool breeze, listening to birds sing. Later, when it rains it will still be warm enough to sit here with the window open and enjoy the storm.

Monday Thoughts

I have sort of slipped into that laziness that comes with lack of structure, though it does not feel as terrible as it did at other points when it happened - perhaps because there is truly nothing that NEEDS doing, or perhaps because it is interspersed with productive Research Assistant work.

The weather went from so rainy and cold it was miserable, through gorgeous and perfect, to too hot in the matter of a week. We turned our A/C on yesterday. I hope it cools down and we get more spring though.

There are people on the quad setting up an AIDS awareness thing that is actually quite neat, pictures strung along fifty feet of the sidewalk. Unfortunately they cannot spell and have a sign that says "Actining on Aids".

I am not feeling great today. I woke up with a slight headache and it rapidly became a general sense of unwellness. I wish it would go away.

I have book club tonight, which I am excited about. Unfortunately I am also an idiot. I went out and bought everything to make this Peanut Butter Strawberry Dessert. Last night I turned on the oven, got the butter out of the fridge, and promptly forgot about it all. I just realized I have nothing to bring tonight, so I will have to stop and buy a store bought dessert. *sigh*. I should get my act together or something.

That is all folks.

What a Wonderful World

Today was wonderful, relaxed, beautiful. Made me think of this song (slight changes to better reflect my day).

What a Wonderful World
I see trees of green........ red tulips too
I see em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright windy days....dark starry nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

The colors of a sunset.....so pretty ..in the sky
Smiles on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do
Theyre really sayin......i love you.

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
Theyll learn much more.....than Ill never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world.

Hello, my name is Amanda

Hello, my name is Amanda, and I am addicted to WoW.

For those of you who do not know what WoW is, it is the abbreviation for World of Warcraft, which is a MMORPG - massively multiplayer online role playing game. Not just a MMORPG, but really the MMORPG. There are others, but non as big as WoW.

Did I lose you yet?

Basically, in WoW, you play as a character. My "main", that is, main character, is a Night Elf Hunter. Night Elf is the race (other options are things like Humans, Gnomes, Dwarfs, Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elfs, etc). Hunter is the class, it determines what kind of attacks I do and what I specialize in. Hunters shoot bows & arrows and guns, they fight with a companion animal (pet). My pet is a Gorilla. When I am not shooting things with my bow, I am hitting them with my TWO AXES, which is totally bad ass in my opinion. My character's name is Verlauren. You can read about her stats here, though it won't make much sense if you don't know the game. Oh, and that image is totally not what I look like. If I was at home I would take a screenshot for you and show you all my character and her Gorilla, but perhaps later since I am writing from school.

So how it works is you are this character, and you run around this massively large world picking up missions from characters run by the game and fulfilling them. You know, you go into a pub and some guy says "I really want to make boar soup but I have no boar meat, go get some for me and I will give you some money and a bowl of soup", so you go out and kills a bunch of boars and bring back the meat. The missions get more complex and more difficult as you get to be higher levels. Unlike the old style of video games, there is not one set plot, a certain order and way of doing things, you can run anywhere in the world anytime you want and kill anything you want (or get killed by it as the case maybe). You can play on servers where characters from the other faction can kill you at anytime.

I am addicted. For a long time I have been a casual player, but lately it has caught me. When I get tired of playing my Night Elf Hunter, I can switch over to my Gnome Warrior, or my Gnome Warlock, or my Human Priest, or my Human Mage... or I could make a new character. I have been playing alone a lot, or with my friend who lives in Korea.

Yep. Thats my life lately. But today I am on campus, so I am not playing WoW, I am doing work! Also, I wanted to mention that I cooked my first turkey ever yesterday! It turned out very well, thank you mom for all the advice (and for being willing to repeat it). Now I will get leftover turkey for a few days, which is really why I bought it in the first place. And, when I get the chance to host a holiday, I don't have to be nervous, because turkey, it turns out, is quite easy.

Minnesota Leads the Way

Once again, Minnesota is good at something, leading the country in food safety tracking and investigation.

Ill from Food? Investigation Varies by State.

I miss Minnesota.

Bad News Folks...

I went back to my Grandma's today and my camera was not there :-(

Our best guess is that it accidentally went home with someone else... which with my extended family means the chances of me getting it back are somewhat iffy. Is it pathetic that I am almost as upset about losing the pictures of my masterpiece cake and all the cute pictures of my family that were on it from Easter as I am about losing the camera itself?

Hopefully I get it back next week, cross your fingers for me.

In other news, I made this recipe, Chocolate Rhapsody, for dessert at my Grandma's tonight. It turned out very well, very close to the picture minus the garnishes. It was quite tasty, perhaps one of my favorite desserts I have made to date, after the chocolate-lemon creme bars of course. The funny part however is how I found this recipe. I googled "quick and easy desserts" and then went to the Nestle site that popped up. I went to their quick and easy category and started browsing.

Let me tell you, those Nestle people have interesting ideas about what exactly quick and easy is!! As I browsed through I got a good laugh telling Ben about some of the various things they considered easy. First, if it requires a specialty pan (like a tart pan or a spring form, etc), it should not be considered quick and easy. Then I clicked on Chocolate Rhapsody. If you looked at the link above you saw that this dessert is layered. The bottom layer is a cake from scratch. The second and fourth layer are chocolate spread, nearly a ganache (though not QUITE as time consuming), and the third layer is a raspberry mousse which requires pureeing, straining, more chocolate ganache type steps, a stove top step, and whipping heavy cream. On top of this all, the recipe calls for cooling times for all layers. Yet, Nestle sorted this into "Quick and Easy".

That said, I made the dessert anyways. It looked too good to pass up. I think I am becoming quite the baker/pastry chef.

28 Hours Later...

In 28 Hours... from 7:30pm Friday night to 11:30pm last night, I spent 14 hours hanging out/having fun with friends, 6 hours sleeping, 3 hours doing WoW related things, leaving 5 hours in which I ate, walked the dog, went grocery shopping, and other miscellaneous.

On Friday night I had friends over to watch the movie Milk about the first openly gay politician to be elected to public office in the U.S. He was elected to the city board of San Fransisco in the late 1970s, and assassinated by a madman after sometime in office. For some reason I find it slightly better that the assassin was a general crazy and not a gay basher, that it was personal, not political. Anyways, I thought this movie was outstanding, and quite honestly, better than Slumdog Millionaire. Both were nominated for Best Picture of 2008, and Slumdog Millionaire took the prize. I found Milk to be much more realistic and emotional moving than Slumdog, and and actually more uplifting than Slumdog Millionaire as well, because even though Milk was assassinated in the end, his life shows that one person really can make a difference that effects millions of people if the put their mind to it and fight for whats right.

Anyways, after the movie we had a campfire on our deck and sat around and chatted, made marshmallows, it was a lot of fun. People stayed until past midnight.

Saturday morning I headed out to go shopping with friends. We went to the Flower Factory where one girl needed to buy somethings for her wedding. It was completely nothing like I expected. I guess I was sort of expecting a garden/florist supplies type store, as it turns out its like as giant well-priced Hobby Lobby. I ended up not buying anything, except a candy necklace that became my headband for the day. After that we headed out to Easton, grabbed lunch at Steak&Shake, and did a little shopping. We picked up my bridesmaid dress for LEKs wedding. It fits well and I love the color. Now I just need to see if it works with the shoes I already bought, and find some jewelry. Most the jewelry I own is white gold, but this dress definately needs either yellow gold or even bronze.

I got home from shopping around 5pm, went to the grocery store and cleaned a bit, then at 8pm people started showing up to play Rock Band. I had seriously been craving some Rock Band quality time (which requires a good group of people). It, as usual, was a lot of fun and we even got someone to play that has always kind of stood back and watched.

That was my 28 hours. Then I went to bed... is it bad that I went to bed at 12:45 and considered it early? Anyways, Aaron was on call yesterday. Being on call means he has three calls during the day, at each time he has to check the progress of some stuff online and call back giving them the go ahead. Normally these calls would come around noon, 4pm, 7pm. Yesterday, the first call came at 3pm, the second call came at 8pm. The third call? It hadn't come when I went to bed. It hadn't come when I woke up at 4am and noticed DH was not there. It did not come until shortly after 5am, so DH was pretty much up all night (he could have slept and waited for the phone call, but it was easier for him to stay up). So, the bad news is DH is exhausted and still asleep. The good news is, that means he got paid for being on call for 21 hours yesterday, thats nearly a whole work days pay for mostly doing nothing (playing video games most of the day).

Hard to be God

I just finished the book Hard to Be God by Arkadi Strugatski. It was written in the 1960s in Russian, under communist Soviet rule. It was extremely difficult to get a copy of. On Amazon, its sold as a rare book for $70+ . The Columbus Library System, which is actually rated as the best in the USA by a lot of rankings, did not have a copy. The OSU library did not have a copy. I finally found it on Ohio Link, the program that allows OSU students to borrow books from other Ohio Universities. It came from the University of Akron. This might be the only public copy of this book in the state of Ohio, and that is very unfortunate.

This is a fantasy book. It was a difficult read. I would be worried about "spoiling" you, but the chances of of anyone else seeking out or getting their hands on this book is small, but do be warned. In the prologue, you see three children playing in the woods. The writing style was easy and crisp (through translation at least), and I enjoyed it. Turn to the first chapter. Complete Chaos. What the hell is going on? I had no idea. Took me a LONG time to catch on. All the sudden you are thrown into this medieval style world with elites and peasants and warlords... gradually it begins to make sense, but I spent a long time confused. That first page of the first chapter is probably the most confused I have been by any book, ever. So what it boils down to is that this is actually a book about highly advanced earthlings researching and experimenting socially on less developed cultures on other planets. Social scientists actually being scientists in a way - "being god" on another planet. It covers a lot of overarching big topics - the nature of humankind, the inevitability of certain human behaviors and patterns in history, the role of the individual, etc. Once I got into the swing of it I really enjoyed it and have added it to by top-100 list.

You may have noticed I have been reading a lot. While some of that is just due to time, some of it is also due to my participation in an online book group via Good Reads. It is called The Next Best Book Club (TNBBC). In particular, they have something called the Spring Challenge, running March 1st to May 31st, in which there are tasks to fulfill with points attached. What do you get for getting points? Nothing really, unless you are at the top, which I won't be. But, it still is fun and addictive. So far, for this challenge (since March 1st) I have read or reread

100 Great Poems of the 20th Century
Poisonwood Bible
Geography of Bliss
Kiss
The Time Travellers Wife
Brave New World
Red Badge of Courage
Of Mice and Men
The God of Small Things
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'
Hard to Be God
and Poison Study

I am currently reading Uglies and rereading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, while Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone is the audiobook in Aaron's car and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the audiobook in my car.

I love fiction. Did I mention that?

Oh, and some of you might have noticed that the books read for my spring challange include books I read for book club. This is just clever arranging on my part. For example, Poison Study is counting as a five point challenge to read something fantasy, while The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World counts towards a 25 point challange to read a book with a title at least 12 words long, and Brave New World is counting for a 15 point challange in which you listen to an interview by the author. I am having a good time. :)

Why the Internet Rocks My World

Top Ten Reasons the I LOVE Living in the Internet Age

10. Little stupid online games are tons of fun - Pogo, Miniclips, PopCap, GameHouse, Kongregate, KiwiNinja
9. Big Stupid Online Games... Like world of WarCraft (WoW)
8. Quick, Easy access to world events - BBC, NYTimes
7. Sports Scores and NFL game trackers and such, and fantasy sports. I love fantasy sports
6. Finding a Great Online book group
5. Having the weather forecast and radar at the tip of my mouse pointer
4. Being able to research anything, anytime. I puffy heart Google and Wikipedia.
3. Being able to keep my family up to date on my life and even show them all my pictures from a thousand miles away
2. Making friends on great local message boards
1. Being able to talk to my friends all over the world everyday, and even play games like World of Warcraft with them.


This list was actually inspired because I spent the last 45 minutes playing WoW with my friend who is currently teaching English in Korea. It was a ton of fun, and I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. We also talk online nearly everyday. If there was not internet, I probably would not have heard from her since she left the country back in January. I mean, really this list can be summarized into three basic categories. The internet rocks my world because (3) The entertainment it provides (2) The information it provides and, most importantly (1) The social network and abilities it provides.

That is all :-)

So, about that...

That whole weight loss resolution? Lets see how it is going.

I have not been to the gym yet this quarter.
I just ate a chocolate bunny (small) and a can of root beer for breakfast.
I have been out to restaurants/drinking with no regards for calorie intake several times already.
We have 10lbs of Easter Chocolate at home that I have been snacking on.
On Monday I made tacos and said as I got an uncessary second helping, "this is not good for me," and got it anyways.

Stop. Reset. Lets try this "starting to try and lose weight" thing again.

The Easter Bunny Came

You know, the fact there is a bunny and eggs associated with Easter has more to do with pagan traditions of a spring fertility festival than anything. But, I love my pagan fertility festival.

I woke up to find the Easter Bunny (or the Easter Husband), had brought me a bucket of chocolate. Mmm. Chocolate. I did miss thee.

Anyways, I spent all morning slaving away in the kitchen to make a masterpiece of a cake. I wanted to post today about all my hard work and how well it turned out, but I left my camera at Grandma's, so that post will wait. Suffice it to say the cake did turn out, and I had a very fun Easter that I will post about more when I get my camera back, probably at least a week.

Easter Egg Party

Champagne - Five Dollars
Orange Juice - Six Dollars
Two packages of PAAS dye - Three Dollars
One bottle of Vinegar -Two Dollars
Four Dozen Eggs - Two Dollars

Dying Easter Eggs with friends while sipping Mimosas?

Priceless.




s

t
eI meant to get pictures of us actually dying the eggs, but I failed at that and snapped the above photos after everyone had left. The eggs pictured were done by myself, friend Jennie, and friend Miryam. Miryam won the best eggs of the day contest by far, but of course I did not get pictures of her best eggs because she took those ones with her :)

I am excited for Easter, just seeing family, baking a nice cake, and eating chocolate again. Mmm. Chocolate. I am making a fancy cake for tomorrow, or trying to. The batter went in the oven 10 minutes ago. It had the right consistency, color, and shape going in. Lets hope that holds up and its a good cake coming out... and that I can pull off the chocolate Ganache topping for tomorrow.

Similar Spatial Preferences

Lately, Nox and Grim have been close as two peas in a pod. Not best friends, just, as DH puts it, having "similar spatial preferences." They both want to be in the same spot. This usually leads to a situation in which Grim is laying on top of Nox in some fashion. Look at their pictures. Grim = 90lb dog, Nox = 9.4lb cat. (Yes. I just weighed her for the purpose of this blog post). So Grim lays on top of Nox and Nox doesn't only not move, she doesn't seem to care at all. Of course, this should be unsurprising since she doesn't seem to care when DH roles onto her during the night. I wake up convinced she is being suffocated and there she is, half crushed, perfectly able to move if she wants, purring away.

I went to two get together with my Internet friends this week (as I call them, even though some are becoming non-Internet friends). On Tuesday night I went to my Classics and Cocktails book club up at The Pub in Polaris. It was a lot of fun. The book was Brave New World, which I really enjoyed (which is unsurprising because I have a thing for Utopia/Distopia Books... but I feel as if I repeat myself). We actually talked about the book quite a bit, which made me happy. Sometimes I think about the motives different people have for reading. People read for fun, its just a matter of what actually about reading brings that fun. For a lot of people it is how engaging the story is, the plight of the heroine, the intrigue. For others it is the emotions evoked - the tears and laughter. For me, its the thought provoked. Over the past two months or so I have had various people tell me they did not like a book because it was unpleasant, it offered an unpleasant reality. Lord of the Flies - a bunch of boys becoming monsters. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - the beloved school and characters being taken over by an incredibly frustrating force, Harry being completely frustrating and impossible. Brave New World - a society mocking what we consider happiness, turning morals on their heads and appearing to be a brainwashed, monochromatic society. There are many others. I can understand why people don't like these books. They are not pleasant per say. They don't bring good emotions and happy endings and reassurance. So, if that's what you dig, I don't recommend them. For me, though, Lord of the Flies and Brave New World are both revealing about human nature. I enjoy them because they provoke thought, bring tiny bits of philosophy and wisdom. I like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because despite how miserable it is, and yes, it is quite miserable, it is doing EXACTLY what the author intends. Harry is feeling trapped and helpless and frustrated and pissed off, so J.K. Rowling makes the reader feel that way too. Impressive in my opinion.

Wow. That was a random and lengthy side note. To recap: Cocktails & Classics was fun. Good food, great drinks, great book, great conversation.

The second thing I went to was Girl's Dinner. We went to this popular Mexican restaurant. I had the Chicken Mole, which was quite good, much better than the last time I had it, and Margaritas, also tasty. It was a nice small group. I sort of prefer small groups, or I tend to get lost in the crowd (of my own accord). Put me in a group of 4-10 and I am talkative and social and engaged. Put me into a group of 10+ and I am quiet, and generally end up sitting along or eavesdropping on other peoples conversations wishing I hadn't come. Of course its usually my fault, but by now I know myself well enough to try and stick to smaller get-togethers. Anyways, so I was glad it was small. It was really fun and their were some people their I had not see in a long time. Great food, great conversation. Internet friends are great.

Anyways, thats my week in a nutshell. Oh yeah. I also did some work somewhere in there. A little RA work. A little job searching. Some writing for fun. Some house cleaning (though not as much as intended). Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

A Cool Building in Chicago

I thought I had enough pictures of this one building in Chicago that it warranted its own post. It is a Bloomingdale's in an old religious building of some sort, though what sort we are not sure. Maybe an old Masonic temple? So here it is, in all of its beauty.

Chicago

As promised, my pictures of Chicago. They are in no particular order. Actually they are kind of in reverse order. But the timeline isn't important.

On Saturday Night I went out to Korean BBQ with my high school friend Abby. It was tons of fun. You cook the meat right at the table. Somehow I managed to ONLY take a picture of the side dishes and (1) not of the meat or grill (2) not of me and Abby together. Oops! But it was tasty, and it was good conversation. I came back to the hotel smelling like Charcoal and burning.

When I was walking to meet Abby, the lighting on the buildings was really neat. I do not think I have walked around much at dusk in Chicago, and it was quite beautiful, so I snapped a couple of pictures. This is the Wrigley Building.

Again, I was enjoying the lighting. Here is looking vaguely west along the Chicago river, standing on the bridge by the Wrigley Building.

At one crossing I managed to capture a hint of the actual sunset through the buildings. I love the way the sky reflects in all the windows.

I was also up Michigan avenue on Saturday afternoon. I found the contrast between this adorable cloister style Presbyterian Church and the sky scraper quite interesting.

While in Chicago I was lucky enough to stay at the Historic Palmer House Hilton. It has been around for ages, and has tons of history to it. This is its main lobby. Impressive, huh?

I spent one afternoon walking around Grant and Millennium Parks. This was taken on the famous "bean" that reflects the skyline.

My friend Rebecca and I in front of the Millennium Park stage.

The Millennium park Bridge

Another shot of the Bean, where you can actually see that it is the bean.

A self-portrait in front of the big fountain in Grant Park.

I love Grant Park because you can get away from the skyline enough to really see how pretty it is.

Rebecca enjoying the fountain.

We walked by the Sears Tower because Rebecca had never been to Chicago. Always impressive.

Spring Has Sprung

I spent the last three days in Chicago! It was tons of fun, but I don't feel like posting about it just yet and I would like to get some pictures up here.

When I returned to Columbus I was shocked to see how much Spring had sprung in the three days! The grass is green and luscious, the tulips are blooming, and the birds are chattering away.

I have some spring resolutions. Of course.

First off, a recap of some of my accomplished New Years resolutions. I no longer chew my nails, I have been reading more for fun, I have started to figure out what I am doing with my life, and I have lengthened the time of my work outs.

My Spring resolutions are as follows:
(1) Lose Weight - I have had ten pounds hanging around that do not need to be here. In order to try to lose them I intend to eat healthier at home, snack less, drink less soda, and improve my level of activity.

(2) Menu Planning - Now I actually have the time again to Menu Plan. This is a failed New Years resolution that I would like to give another go. It saves money and calories.

(3) Write more for fun - I am thinking 500 words per work day spent at home, and 100 per day on weekends... which should be a minimum of 1700 words per week.

(4) Get a Job - This is clearly somewhat out of my control but I will consider myself successful at this if I am applying to jobs on a very regular basis (daily until I get caught up on postings, and then perhaps weekly).

(5) Take better care of my Skin - The first part of this resolution is to learn HOW to take better care of my skin, the second part is to actually do it. The things I know for sure - get back into the habit of daily SPF. If anyone has any good advice on this count, let me know.

Pictures!!

So, I totally meant to leave my biggest news post at the top for a while, but I could not resist snapping and then immediately posting these pictures. I am still not used to seeing all of my cats hanging out together! Little Caesar is doing great, and fitting right in. Here are my puddahs.


I feel like if I edited this a bit it could be the cover of some CD or something. Here are some other shots. Of course, all these shots are "unposed" because how on earth do you pose a cat?



And then, so Grim does not feel left out, I better take a picture of her. Why so Serious? I don't know. She is such a good girl.


And finally, while I was at it, I took some pictures of my teapot that I painted at the Bare Bowl. Here it is!


Oh, and if you haven't read my big news, keep on reading --------->

The Big News

So, I have been hinting that I have some important news, and here it finally is. I have decided after much thought that I do not want or need to get my PhD in Political Science (or anything else right now for that matter). I am just not happy doing what academics do for a living - researching. Teaching is OK, but I do not enjoy it so much as to make everything else worth it. I have never been sure if I wanted to get my PhD or if I was cut out for such academic concentration, and I am not. I prefer to learn more and more about more and more rather than more and more about less and less, as the saying goes. So, as of June 13th, I will be officially done with graduate school with my Masters in hand (unofficially I will be done with graduate school whenever I leave Columbus for my sister's wedding). So, I am trading one set of dragons (dissertations and studying and concentration) for another (job hunts and vacation hours and the real world).

Aaron and I hope to stay in Columbus for another couple of years, but in order to do so, one of us will need to find a good job. Otherwise we will be forced to relocate. I will keep you up to date on everything of course. I have three months to line something up, so hopefully that is enough even in this economy.

Wish me Luck!