Overall, summer is the best and most boring time of year. This is probably my last summer that I’m not working full time and in the “real world”, so I’ve been trying to enjoy some of it. It’d be a lot easier if the next year wasn’t a complete mystery.
I’ve done the interviews, and now I’m just waiting for word. I’ve got an ace in the hole, but I’m waiting for the one I want first. Anyone who wants to know will know when something happens.
I’ve been to the pool here off and on, working on my tan. Which, is pretty pathetic, but then again, that is usual. I’m Scandanavian with a hint of German, so I don’t expect much. I do hate how many obnoxious kids there are there. Since I read while I tan, I don’t wear my headphones because otherwise I can’t concentrate, and I’ve never heard kids so young using the F-word in regular conversation.
We’ve been grilling a lot this summer. We have grills like you find in public parks here, and we go out once or twice a week and have food on the grill. Mostly steaks, but we’ve had burgers, kabobs, and pork chops too, and I’ve got some good hot dogs for this week. Bryce has also decided to implement a “Bryce cooks” night about once a week. For his first week, he made a red wine marinated steak, which was really good. I helped with spices and flavorings. He made his mom’s hash browns with it. They weren’t the best, probably for two reasons. One, they were made beforehand and the sour cream and cheese were added later, because the grills are 3-400 yards away and they were too greasy, and I think they needed a little onion, which is a strange thing for me to say, but they were blah. I’ve started using onion pretty regularly, even though I used to HATE onions, in cooking, making sure they are really small and well cooked so that icky crunch isn’t there. So what will Bryce make us next?
As you all know, Bryce and I watched Lost. I would say we are Losties, but I have to tell you, if I would have been watching it week to week, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. A good chunk of season 2 is straight up garbage. The time spent in captivity over in the barracks was long, drawn out, and overall ridiculous. Now I’m most interested in the dynamics of the Whitmore/Ben relationship and who put that plane on the bottom of the ocean, and of course where is the island now, and when will the oceanic 6 go back, since obviously they will. The nature of the show will change dramatically I think. Also, I want to know how polar bears survived there at all. If they don’t explain that, its ridiculous, since polar bears wouldn’t be able to survive in that heat with no prey but wild boars, which they wouldn’t be able to catch anyway, so I want to know how they manipulated them genetically or whatnot to allow them to survive there.
We’ve also been watching a ton of movies. Dark Knight the best, but I also really liked The Kingdom. No Country for Old Men, Vantage Point, License to Wed, Enchanted, and a lot more, I can only seem to remember the last week or two’s. Also been watching the new episodes of Jon and Kate plus 8. I’ve seen every episode, and it is one of my favorite shows, really cute. Meerkat Manor is my summer show, since everything else is done. It’s a little weird to give human traits to animals which clearly don’t have them but it looks like they do, but the show is dramatic, and if you get attached to The Whiskers, its like a little meerkat soap opera. Who’s been sleeping with who, who’s mad at the other, are they going to overthrow the leader, which family will win the territory battle, will the snake get one of them, babies getting eaten by other meerkats and hawks, and so on. My cats really like to watch animal or action shows with us, especially Bear. He sits in the cat perch watching for hours, literally.
This summer, while lazing much of it, I’ve been working as an adjunct professor. I teach general chemistry lab I and II. It’s been pretty cool, except for the fact I expect the students to come prepared and to pay attention, and to follow directions, and they don’t. Maybe I was just a dork, but lab was faster and I got more out of it if I came ready to go. These kids claim to read the instructions, but obviously they don’t. I get the packet the same day they do, so it isn’t like I have a head start on the actual procedure. I see the point faster, but as far as add A to B, we’re on the same level, since I didn’t do the same labs at SMSU. But it is money and it is better on the resume than tanning at the pool.
Once again, I’m trying to start a fitness/diet. I haven’t put on all the weight I lost before (I’m still ten down from last summer) but there is still room to improve. If I go down ten more, I’d be happy.
I’m really starting to feel the pinch of rising gas and all that goes with it. Gas isn’t a big deal for me, since I only fill up every other week, so an extra five bucks a week isn’t huge, but the food prices are killing us. You can’t buy decent meat here without breaking the bank. Unless you want a crappy, tough cut of steak, you are looking at $35 for 4-5 steaks, more if you buy them one at a time. I try to hit up the meat specials, when they are reduced to sell, and freeze them, but everyone else feeling the pinch is doing it too, so the selection isn’t so hot. It is usually $100 a week for food, and that doesn’t count Bryce going out to eat twice a week for lunch. I think it is more pronounced out here than back home, by far. I think everything costs 10 to 25% more than April prices. Even canned and frozen foods have gotten outrageous, and I’m not even going to tell you how much dairy products make me mad. well, I will mention 1 gallon skim milk = $4.79 this week, which is down ten cents from last week. We are essentially single income with a few bonuses for the summer until I get a job, so we don’t have spare change to throw around these days.
For every teacher I ever asked when my test will be graded, I apologize. Grading open-ended questions really really sucks. No excuses for multiple choice or true/false though.