scrapbooked

the rest of the trip

Here are some pictures from when we went downtown. We took the Metro back into the Mall area on Friday and tried to get tickets to go up in the Washington Monument, but they were already all gone. We're not the best at getting up early :)

I had never been to the WWII Memorial or the Korean War Memorial because they were built after we moved away from MD. I wish the cherry blossoms had been blooming. I think we decided, after looking at a website, that the cherry blossoms actually haven't bloomed yet. We couldn't even tell which trees were supposed to be the cherry trees, but oh well. We found a few trees of other types that were flowering.

We didn't end up just relaxing on Thursday. Jaclyn thought that I should get my thumb checked out sooner rather than later, in case it was broken. And I was sick, so we decided to take me to an urgent care place. This was good because it got Lindsey out of the meeting she didn't want to go to anyway. So I had my thumb x-rayed and it's NOT broken. I also got some antibiotics and strong cough medicine for my cold. The doctor said I might have bronchitis. He wasn't sure?!? So, we went back to Lindsey's after that and watched Chicken Little (very funny, btw) and Finding Neverland (Lindsey had never seen it). That was the extent of our Thursday fun.

My flight back was good. The flight was totally full and they asked for volunteers to leave later in the day, but I wanted to come back earlier. I knew I was going to have a hard time staying awake! When I got to Nashville, my car didn't want to start right away, but I figured that would happen. I finally got it to start with the right combination of fuel & cranking the starter, I think.

I came back and ate lunch, then crashed on my sleeping bag & new sleeping pad (thanks Lindsey!) until about 5:30. Then Jaclyn & I walked over to the church and back. Our only evening activity was to go to Walmart and the mall. I got some pictures printed and finished a scrapbook page of the DC trip last night.

news from the capitol steps

Lindsey and I had fun running around the Mall area of D.C. yesterday. We went to the National Museum of American History. They took out the big pendulum that used to be in the center of the museum. The original flag is down so they can work on it too. The upstairs was probably the coolest part. They have a big exhibit about the wars the US has been involved in. It was really well done. There was an interesting exhibit on transportation on the first floor too.

We got really hungry after a while and headed over to Union Station to eat lunch. Then we walked over in front of the Capitol building and went to the Botanical Gardens. They had lots of really cool orchids and bromeliads (pineapple family). It was also a lot warmer in those greenhouses, so that felt good.

After we left the greenhouse, it was time to start heading back to beat the rush hour crowd on the Metro, so we walked along the other side of the Mall. We encountered a very outgoing squirrel who thought that my plastic bag meant that I had squirrel food for him. Lindsey touched his tail as he ran away once and it came back and sniffed her finger later. I thought it was going to jump on us!

For supper, we had really good pesto & feta cheese pizza and came back here to watch Bones and Lost. I stayed awake long enough to see at least half of CSI: New York too, but didn't make it through the end.

Lindsey has to go to a meeting at work, so we'll be kind of relaxing from being tourists. I'm going to keep reading the books for my directed study and try to totally finish the first one. Maybe I can finish the second one on the plane ride back to Nashville. We'll see. I'm not sure if it's really Sabbath reading anyway.

Well, that's the news from Columbia. Pictures to follow later, when I can reduce the sizes and also my upload time!

the tragic story of my thumb

So you can't tell in the picture really, but this is what my thumb looks like after being shut in a car door. We were getting out of Jaclyn's car at Kari Shultz's house Sabbath and I made some joke about Anthony's new car. Stephanie laughed and proceeded to squish my thumb in between the back and front doors. The door totally shut and latched! Ow! I got ice on it within 30 seconds, I think. I just ran inside and said "Kari, I need ice." I think I was in shock at seeing 80% of my finger disappear between two pieces of metal. Thank goodness for weather stripping! Today my thumb is sore and turning black. I'm sure many more beautiful colors will follow shortly.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty fun. After I mastered eating with my left hand, we went down to the Imagination Station in Collegedale to play. Stephanie and Tanya took over the tank. (Look out!) We walked around for a while, then headed back to campus. I had to go to the Madrigals concert for Evensong because I skipped vespers. I met up with everyone back at Kari's house to play games. After attempting to play about 3 rounds of Dutch Blitz with only my left hand, I decided to head back to the apartment to watch CSI until I fell asleep.

Today was really boring. I woke up before 8:00a because I've gotten too much sleep over the weekend. I watched Meet the Fockers then went to search for a splint for my mutilated thumb. I came back and started watching Gladiator, but fell alseep before the end. I went back to the mall and went shopping again, then came back and packed for my trip. I just finished watching Meet the Fockers and now I'm keeping myself awake so I can go to Thatcher South for my one worship credit for the week.

I'll update this while I'm at Lindsey's, hopefully. Maybe I'll have some cherry blossom pics by then!

identify the non 6th grader...

Spring has definitely arrived in Collegedale. It's good that these trees are prettier to see than to smell. Soon I'll get to see the really pretty cherry blossoms in D.C. with Lindsey. It's been years since I was up there in the city while they were blooming.

Today was a "fun" day at school. More like lots of sitting for our 6th graders. It's hard for them because they're not really well represented in the sports (or anything else, for that matter). They did really well today though.

This is what happens when you aim a camera at 6th graders.

not tired

I was going to go do some scrapbooking before I go to sleep for the night, but I haven't been able to get my butt out of this chair. I have been sitting here watching episodes of CSI while filling out the Hamilton Co. job application, which is about 10 pages long.

It was nice that the weather today was not even close to what was predicted. Jaclyn and I took a long walk to Thatcher South, the post office, and back around by the church this evening. We happened upon a pair of kildeer over at the old tennis courts site that decided to lay eggs (look closely! those aren't rocks!) about 5 feet from the sidewalk. We got to see a not-too-convincing broken wing act.

Ok, so I lied in the title. I am feeling a bit sleepy, but just don't want to go to sleep. That means I'll have to get up and go to school. I would much rather stay up and watch movies or something, but I guess every day can't be the weekend. =( At this point, I'm very much looking forward to spring break, spending time with Lindsey, and getting lots done on my looming directed study.

Today was pretty uneventful. I did a game with the students on classifying polygons using 3-way Venn diagrams. They liked playing it because it involved taking away each other's tangram pieces. Tomorrow is their exam review and Wednesday is the exam. Thursday is the "Kiss-a-Pig" contest and staff vs. student volleyball game.

get over it day

So, did you hear that my birthday has been made into a holiday???

Get Over It Day is a new holiday taking place on March 9th (exactly midway between Valentine's Day and April Fool's Day) because EVERYONE has SOMETHING to get over! (regardless of what - or whom - "it" may be for you).

I thought that was kind of interesting and had never stopped to figure out the date between Valentine's and April Fool's.

In other news, here are pictures of the mug I painted for Elaine when I left OMS:

feed the ducks: check

Taking old bread down to the duck pond today made me realize that there are a lot of "Southern" things I haven't done while I've gone to school here. One of the things, of course, was feeding the lovely ducks and geese that never leave campus. Another thing I haven't ever done is to stay around and watch SonRise. I still don't know if that will happen, being that it is the same weekend as MPA's Alumni Weekend. I'm sure as this semester winds down, I will think of more things that should have been part of my experience here, but weren't. Right now, I am doing a "Southern" thing, in that I'm watching a movie off the network!

what a difference a memory card makes!

So now I can actually see what I've taken pictures of. There haven't been many great shots yet, but I'm still learning how to use the camera. The whole AF thing is throwing me off!

so close . . . but not yet

My CompactFlash card is sitting down at the Collegedale post office just waiting to be picked up. Too bad the office is closed. :(

Anyway, here are some pictures from the last two days I was at OMS. They're not great quality, but I'll put them here anyway.

physical weathering of sugar cubes

observation of weathering

adding carbon dioxide to water to model chemical weathering of limestone rocks

Hiaya and me

Elaine and me

camera: check; memory card: nope

I got my new camera yesterday from NY, but the memory card that comes from a bordering state is still a no-show.

Today was fun. Jaclyn and I went to first service and SS, then made the weirdest lunch ever. Then we got the strange idea to drive up to the Hiawassee River to see the cranes again. We saw a total of 1 crane. :) The cool thing we did see was a pair of ospreys flying around above the river. Tonight, we made pizza and Hollie came over. We spent the rest of the night walking around the mall buying nothing.

Now back to the movie . . .