twinkly lights & snow plows

i think i got a combined total of about 2 hours of sleep last night. between it taking me a million hours to fall asleep, waking up every 30 minutes for no apparent reason and the snow plow outside our window which thought that 3 am was an appropriate time to slam around and make loud noises for an extended period of time.

last night my plane was delayed by 35 minutes or so which ended up working out just fine. the plane ride was seriously cool. nighttime + blizzarding snow + city lights = seriously cool. not to mention my ipod was dead so i listened to the soundtrack from star trek for the entire hour on the inflight radio. the coolest part was flying over rochester and seeing all of the streets with the plows going up and down. ash picked me up at the airport and i spent the rest of the night unpacking and catching up.

despite all of that nonsense last night, i was up and ready for class with a good hour to spare. already finished deaf lit, next is survey of western art, typography and photo then small group & homework. busy first day back. ashley and i decided on the walk over to class that our time would be much better spent if we turned around, got back in pjs and watched movies and played in the snow all day. luckily we have some common sense so we kept walking to class.

15 days?!

i can't believe that it's already been that long since i last posted. good thing i already hit my quota for the year some time ago.

christmas was excellent. lots of family. lots of cookies. and TONS of card games (old maid, hearts, euchre, trash, etc). i'll have to dig up some pictures eventually. i tend to stop blogging when i come home because let's face it.. a good chunk of my daily readers are right here with me! ;) as for now, i've got some homework and admissions stuff to get working on. school seems pretty far away, it's a wonder i even remembered what homework i have.

sarah's getting her wisdom chompers out tomorrow morning so it looks like we'll be watching movies and making smoothies (ha! that kind of rhymes) for the next few days. no big plans for new years.

heading back to school on sunday night (late flight around 9 but tons cheaper than the earlier one) still have some friends to catch up with. things to do, people to see, sims lives to mess up (the sims is a computer game in case you didn't catch that).

check out [this] to read a cool hockey story

and [this] to see pictures of our 23 inches of snow!!

enhanced

dear snow,

as beautiful as you are tumbling downward and blanketing the ground with white powdery goodness, you pose quite a problem for anyone traveling. so while i'm currently enjoying the whole an inch an hour thing, think you could let up on wednesday and thursday? that would be much appreciated. also, i am liking the fact that weather underground is referring to you as "lake enhanced snow" as if you needed any help around here.

and while you're at it, tell your good friend mr. wind that i enjoyed his absence today. he should consider taking a break more often.

sincerely,

me

in other news.. one project, one critique, 2 tests and one paper away from winter break :)

winter snow advisory

Houston, we have snow.

and we're not talking about any puny-melt-in-one-hour kind of snow. REAL powdery white stuff that just so happens to be falling in a HORIZONTAL fashion.

of course, it had to pick the one day of the week when i have an 8 am class on the complete opposite side of campus AND i'm giving a tour for a special group today.

looks like today would be a good day to bust out the 'ol winter coat.

it also looks like we're supposed to get around an inch an hour until tonight which means that if i stand in one place for too long i could potentially be buried. note to self, move quickly.

it might help if i could see WHERE the roads are as the plows are seemingly useless.

oh the weather outside is frightful

[Post from my RIT Blog this morning]

For some reason the weather this year has just not been the same. Last year the snow started coming down around early November and let up around March or April (I could totally be making that up that ending date I honestly don't remember). This year it's December 9th and we're just now getting snow. We've had a few fake flakes here in then but nothing substantial. Even now its only a few inches. It is however incredibly windy right now.

Why am I bringing this up? Because normally I would be in class not still sitting at home in my pj's and watching it from the comfort of my own bed (all while listening to Christmas music)! I was supposed to have a class at 10 am this morning which was all fine and dandy but I woke up to roll over and check my phone and got an email saying it was cancelled. Now, this is not exactly the time I need a break, but extra sleep is welcomed whenever I can get it because I've been lacking in that category lately. 13 days ago I was home and in just under 9 more days I will be back home for winter break. This is probably RITs most awkward quarter. Fall quarter works out quite well, we're here for the entire time, parent's weekend is in the middle for a little relief and then we're back at it until Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving we come back and have the first 3 weeks of winter quarter followed by a full 18 days of break time then 8 more weeks of classes and finals. Thanksgiving break is fantastic because there is no homework attached so it's a full week of freedom. Winter quarter, while you'll have work the amount depends on what classes you're taking. So far, mine doesn't look like it will be that bad. This is also an awesome time to catch up (if you've managed to get behind already during the 3 weeks) or get ahead for the remaining weeks. It works out great for some of my classes that have 3 tests (1 before and 2 after break) and for my design classes which involve projects or photoshoots. The weirdest thing going on right now is the length of some of these days. I feel like last week was the longest week of my life! Not necessarily a bad thing, it's just totally throwing off my sense of time. Looking back, I sure packed a lot into that first week which might have been part of the problem (or solution?).

Anyway, time to actually consider doing something today! I have some design projects that I'm working on already. I've also heard that the snow is rather hard so that sounds good for some snowman building!! Next post I promise to talk about my classes, as I'm taking some rather unique ones this quarter.

=====

edit/additions:: it's no longer snowing :( or windy for that matter. my 1 pm class is still on. and university of wisconsin cancelled all classes because it snowed 17 inches. SO JEALOUS. i want the snow, ill still go to class.

SNOW

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!

I ran around outside in a t-shirt. It was fantastic.

Now back to our regular scheduled programming...

everything but....

...homework.

no classes yesterday, no work, no ice skating. and pretty much everyone and their brother went home for the weekend. so what did i do? nothing. just kidding that's only half true. i got some of my to-do list done. and went to IV. but every once in a while i just really need a day off. i realized that i had a paper due at midnight (realized this around 11:25) good thing i'm ahead of the game and had finished writing it a week ago. good thinking.

woke up at 6:30 this morning and got out of bed after only 15 minutes of snooze buttons. worked from 7:45-12:30 doing various things. made grilled cheese and carrots for lunch. well i didn't make the carrots but you know what i mean. washed them at least. now i need to take 2 tests for political science and write the paper due tuesday. that one i dont have written already but i finished the outline so yay.

i've decided to minor in art history. thoughts? i'm not sure. too indecisive for this declaring business.

hmm, what could i do instead of homework now? the possibilities are endless. i enjoy playing music and singing out loud. this activity is best when no one else around. also, good thinking. got some good stuff on my itunes, its fantastic. there will be no concerts anytime soon.

five weeks until this quarter is over. i've been here for eight already. this seems like a long time. what have i done? not sure. i should probably figure that out.

i just realized i'm still wearing my name tag. seeing as there is no one else around i think it's safe to take it off. i wonder if people even read all of this? maybe. maybe not. hi mom. i figured you'd make it this far ;)

oh yeah, it snowed two days ago. not enough to warrant a blog post but still. winter's here. it's like 32 degrees on a regular basis now.

so much for that....

WHY IS IS SNOWING/FREEZING RAINING? And, WHY ARE THERE WORMS?

seriously, it's saturday afternoon and i'm pretty sure every single one of my plans this weekend has been ruined.

last night we were all going to go out to dinner and walk over to the gallery for a MFA gallery opening. it was pouring rain and we were all dressed up-- got drenched. turns out the gallery opening was closing when we got there.

this morning we were going to wake up and get breakfast from gracies and watch spongebob. spongebob wasn't on.

at noon we were going to go to a lacrosse game. it is absolutely disgusting outside. there are worms everywhere and it's super windy/rainy and it's been snowing all morning.

at 2:30 we were all going to go ice skating. there is apparently a ice skating invitational going on today at Ritter that they forgot to put up on the schedule.

uhm, yeah. slightly annoying. anyway, i'm getting homework done. we're supposed to go to a concert/comedian thing later tonight. hopefully that's not cancelled or something... wouldn't be surprised.

oh well.

here's some pictures from our failed adventure last night...

projects, pancakes & purple ponies

projects: i have a lot of them. i spent eleven straight hours yesterday working on homework. okay, straight meaning a quick phone call with mom and dad as well as a short break for dinner. but seriously, that's a lot of work. i have a drawing due tomorrow as well as a project for elements. blech. slightly overwhelming. especially because i just found out today that it is week FOUR??!? and we're registering for fall classes. what the heck? where did this quarter go?

pancakes: went home with ashley this weekend to marathon, ny. it was quite exciting. drove down after class and work on friday, saw where her mom works, visited the waterfalls in ithaca, jumped on the trampoline and ate some delicious homemade mac & cheese! saturday morning we woke up early and drove into town for the maple festival. it was SO nice... 71 degrees. which was actually a tad too hot for me, but it was okay anyway. walked around town looking and everything. met up with one of her friends from high school who actually spent a few nights here at RIT a few weeks ago so that was fun. ended up going back to her house for a bit because the train was too full. drove into binghamton to walk around the mall and then... went to a hockey game!! the rochester amerks were playing the binghamton senators... very good game. unfortunately the amerks lost but it went into overtime as well as a shoot out which never happened here.

purple ponies: i don't really have anything to say about purple ponies, i just couldn't think of anything else important that started with "p" it may not start with the letter p... but i used powertools today! and i still have all of my fingers and toes! we're working on a project for 3d that requires wood and such so i learned how to use the bandsaw. it's actually quite fun and now i'm turning into a woodcutting fool.

hockey game! 

dave, ash and i at the falls

in other thing...it freaking snowed today. i guess it's still march, i shouldn't be too surprised. but seriously? 71 degrees and then SNOW...

all good things come to an end

just got back to rochester from a weeklong spring break at home! ashley was able to come home with me too so I got to show her all of the exciting things to see in maryland and dc. ironically the day we flew home from rochester was the beginning of the biggest snowstorm maryland has had in three years (only 6 inches of snow) but still funny-- or annoying. eventually it warmed up and we were able to have 75 degree weather today!! too bad when we landed in rochester today it was 38 degrees, foggy and rainy. oh well. 

this week included: two separate trips to chipotle, a Caps game at the verizon center with Amanda!, a day full of wandering around DC, a second trip to DC with dad, seeing jimmy (Alison's new adorable dog), visiting with Barb, Joe and Eric this weekend, mini golf and batting cages yesterday, Sarah's volleyball tournament this morning and other various fun things. 

verizon center

the white house

jimmy, alison's dog :)

mini golfing

tomorrow is the first day of spring quarter which means... new classes! i actually only have one class tomorrow so it shouldn't be too bad. class 9-12, work 12-4. 

Nothing But Pictures

I realized last night that I have milliions of pictures on my computer that I have not yet put online. Oops. So here, I'll dump them all now. 

above is a picture of the path way on which i usually walk to class... yeah that's right. it's nonexistant at the moment...

if you look in the distance my dorm is the smaller of the two buildings on the right. 

walking to class...

hockey!!!!!

the rest of the pictures are from last night hanging out on the guy's floor & outside. above is mark and evan.

climbing doorways

just hanging out between the door frame.

ashley and i outside with NO COATS!

view of the world from on top of a picnic table...

playing volleyball with an extremely wet nasty volleyball..

boys being crazy..

playing with lasers

the whole gang

Room Change # 4

Yep, we moved our room around again!

We got back from class last night around 7 and the guys told us that they wouldn't be ready until 8 so we had an hour to kill... it ended up taking almost 3 :) Whoops. We called them around 9:30 and told them that they all had to come over right now because we really needed help moving something... but we had it all done! I think it's pretty awesome looking. And yeah, we have a lot of hearts up-- thanks Nana! It looks rather festive in here. We basically triple bunked our beds so Ashley has a matress on the floor, i'm in the middle and all of our extra suitcases and stuff are all the way at the top! Had a movie night last night, watched Step Brothers.. not exactly the most educational movie ever :) but it was a good end-of-the-week-lets-hang-out-and-act-stupid kind of movie.

Worked this morning from 10 until almost 2. Came back and bought hockey tickets for tonight! We wandered over to the Rail Jam. They basically just set up large piles of snow for people to snowboard on over by the library. It kind of helped that we already have 16 ft + piles of snow just lying around. In a little bit we're meeting up with a bunch of people at Gracie's for french toast!! Mmm. Then a hockey game tonight! Woohoo. Go Tigers! 

Ah, the weather...

Rochester: SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE AT TIMES DURING BURSTS OF HEAVIER SNOWFALL FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO REACH 8 TO 12 INCHES BY LATE WEDNESDAY EVENING.

--------------------> Recommendation: Wear some gloves and consider zipping up your coat when walking outdoors.

Clarksville: 

PRECIPITATION WILL BE MAINLY IN THE FORM OF SNOW AND SLEET LATE TODAY AND THIS EVENING... BUT THEN CHANGE OVER TO FREEZING RAIN BEFORE MIDNIGHT. TEMPERATURES RISE ABOVE FREEZING WEDNESDAY MORNING... REACHING HIGHS AROUND 40 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. THAT WILL ALLOW PRECIPITATION TO PHASE OVER TO RAIN AND SOME MELTING OF THE ICING.

ADDITIONAL SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS LATE TODAY AND THIS EVENING WILL BE 1 TO 3 INCHES. THAT WILL BE FOLLOWED BY ICE ACCUMULATIONS OVERNIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY OF A TENTH TO AROUND A QUARTER OF AN INCH.

---------------------> Recommendation: Avoid the outdoors! Go immediately to your local grocery store and stock up on food for a good week, stay away from doors and windows... the inch of snow might collapse your house. 

It's All Your Fault!

This week is the first time since I was 10 that a democrat has been in office and so far the only change I've noticed is the 5 foot snowpile that was dumped in the path on which I walk to class. But, I don't think that Obama had anything to do with that so I'll give him a break :)

It's been busy busy around here like always. It's been snowing constantly and then all of a sudden yesterday it got up to 40... springtime?? Two hours later a cold front blew through so we're back down to the 7 degrees where we belong.



I've been watching a TON of hockey. Two hockey games last weekend (already mentioned in posts below). Then on Thursday Ashley and I along with two of our friends left at 5 pm and drove an hour and a half to Buffalo to see the Tigers play! They won 5 -2 against the golden griffins -- ugliest mascot ever. A lot of the corner crew from RIT was there so there was lots and lots of cheering.. there were actually more RIT fans there than the other team and they kind of sucked at cheering. I do believe at one point the announcer threatened to kick us out for being obnoxious. Whoops. "It's all your fault... It's all your fault.." We got rather lost on the ride back but on the plus side we found the sketchy part of town! Not that we were looking for it ;) Eventually found the right road and we back it back around 11. Worked for a few hours Friday morning and then went to a minor and concentration fair with Ashley to figure out what the heck we want to do. After that we met up with the boys and went to lunch at Gracies. We decided a while back that we really needed orange jeans to wear to all of the games so we finally drove over to the mall to look. Unfortunately Rochester does not seem to like the color orange because there is NOTHING. Oh well, still walked around and just looked at stuff. Drove back and raced to get dinner before the Women's Hockey game at 7. We literally ate dinner while running down the quarter mile-- it would have made the best movie ever because it was so windy and really hard to eat while walking really fast. Made it to the game and luckily all the guys had gone ahead and saved us seats. The game was pretty good but no where near as fun as the men's games. They did go into over time which has never happened before. Sudden death in overtime when they're tied 1 to 1 is rather exciting. Walked back and we all hung out in our room for a while. The guys decided to go back to try to go to sleep because they have a LAN party tomorrow-- yeah, what losers :) Just kidding! Somehow we ended up going over to their floor after that and chilling in the hall until 3 am. Their floor is all male so since we're both girls (obviously...) everyone started coming out of their room going "omg girls!!" It was kind of amusing. Eventually went to bed and now i'm sitting here annoying Ashley because I'm typing this up and not going to eat lunch with her!!! Guess I should get out of the chair and go before she throws things at me =)

Later I'll put up some pictures from projects I've been working on as well as pictures from the hockey games! 

E to the X. D X D Y

Secant, Cosine, Tangent, Sine

3.14159, Pi, Pi times 3

Let's go! Let's go! RIT!

Yes, We Can!

We can now officially say that Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States!

Regardless of party lines, I think we can agree that today is one of those days that future generations will be reading about in history textbooks for years to come. The amount of change happening within the last 24 hours is indescribable. Much like everyone down in Washington waiting for the election, I awoke early this morning, however, I was awoken by fire alarm number two of this week and not the need to get on a 4 am bus to downtown DC. J What a great way to wake up; strobe lights and loud buzzing noises. Anyway, it didn’t much matter because I was able to fall back asleep and by the time I woke up at 8 the official festivities of inauguration day were just beginning on TV. By the looks of the TV coverage, there are a few million people on the mall. As I found out last night, not everyone here knows what the mall is? In case you fall into this category, the mall is an open space in Washington DC between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol.

On campus are a number of student groups that have organized an inauguration party for the swearing in and speech at noon. I’m watching the speech from the comfort of my dorm room (while my roommate sleeps) so I can be somewhat productive since I’m missing a class today. Yeah, I know what a horrible student. But to tell the truth I’ve never skipped a class in over 12 years of school and I felt that this was one of those times that I just couldn’t miss out on.

Politics in Rochester are much different than in Washington. I’ve grown up in the DC metro area for my entire life (as mentioned in other posts). Politics are a huge deal in DC, not to say that every person is obsessed but definitely a large majority. In my neighborhood alone, it would be safe to say that over a third of adults work for the government. DC is roughly 40 minutes away by car or just a few metro stops away. Here in Rochester, I feel far removed from DC yet strangely close at the same time. It's so hard to wrap my mind around the idea that while I'm sitting here in my comfy dorm room watching history unfold on TV, this is actually happening just 7 hours away. Despite the distance, the excitement for Obama here is in no shortage. I'm remembering back to when he was officially announced as the democratic president elect in November when there was cheering in the quads and lounges. I can only imagine what the next four years will bring.

On a completely unrelated note, Animal Collective’s new album Merriweather Post Pavillion comes out today! The extra neat thing about this is that the album is actually named after a pavilion about 10 minutes from my house in Maryland and it’s also the location where I graduated almost nine months ago. But you know, that’s such a small piece of news compared to Obama!

Snow Wonder & Hair

It's 'snow' wonder it's so busy around here! haha, sorry just had to do that. The snow and the homework have been pounding down by the bucketload. The picture with snow in it below is  from before we got the 6+ inches this weekend. It's actually been pretty warm-- around 28! But we have massive piles of snow, seriously like 2 times bigger than a decent size car.  On the academic side of things, it's week 5. Midterm week, ahhhhh. Design majors don't have "midterms" but we certainly have tons of projects. In all three of my studio classes I have large projects due within the next few days. The picture below the snow one is of a drawing I've been working on for a few weeks now. I've actually worked on it since that picture but ya know, I'm lazy and don't feel like updating anything. Also, I accidentally knocked it right before I took the picture so some of the contents are uhm, not in the right place. 

In other news, I cut my hair. Ashley and I were out at Wegman’s getting some stuff for my 2d design project (details on that to come) and I suddenly felt a wave of spontaneity come upon me. I told her that if for some reason we saw a haircutter on the way back to campus, I’d get at least my bangs cut. Well, as fate would have it, there was one almost right next door.   So I walked in and said CUT THEM NOW BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND. I'm not entirely sure if I like it yet, but we'll see! 

It's BEDTIME! Hopefully I'll get more sleep than last night. For some reason my body kept waking itself up (at 2 freaking am) thinking it was time for class. I guess I was really excited for chai tea Mondays? Work, paper writing, 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

We won!

First volleyball game of the season was tonight. I convinced Ashley to go with me now that she's in her "going to say yes to everything" mood. Got there 15 minutes early and we were really afraid that it was going to be the two of us against a team of 8 guys! Good thing some other people decided to show up. It's by no means high class volleyball, we won't be knocking Penn State out of their position any day soon but it's still fun.

It's currently snowing outside and the snow appears to want to continue until Sunday according to weather dot com. Hopefully we well get some good snowman building snow, that would be lovely.

I got to paint today! Fingerpainting, actually! We're working on one project in drawing right now that requires ridiculous amounts of concentration and the next project is really really loose so my professor gave us paint and told us to use pencils and paint to draw the skeleton. I'm actually rather happy with how my turned out, not really so much how it looks but it was super fun to make and it's surprising what you can convey even when everything is messy. I'll post a picture sometime later, it's currently drying in my locker and I didn't want the snow to mess it up.

My eight am class tomorrow was cancelled about two minutes ago due to snow (already... yeah, i know..) but that's okay because now I get to sit here and "be in class" on my computer. Too bad we have a quiz tomorrow on unknown topics. 3d goes from 9 until noon, meeting Ashley for a quick lunch, meeting at work from 1-2, class from 2-5 then DRAWING until the end of time! It's actually not that bad, i'm having fun drawing it now. I'm also working on this giant coloraid project for 2d. It's an extension of something we're doing in class and I liked it so much that I'm just working on something for the heck of it.

Chai Snow Melt-age

I love snow
the end.

(ashley on giant 10+ foot snowpile)

Got back to Rochester yesterday afternoon after all the shenanigans noted in the post below. I realized wayyy to late that I could have just taken the blade out of the knife... oh well. Too late. Got back and unpacked everything. Went to the corner store with Ashley to get some dinner! (hummus, pita and cheese sticks! mmmm) We were looking for something fun to do --other than homework-- and noticed the large snow pile outside so we piled on everything we could and went outside looking like marshmallows. Rochester has a ridiculous amount of snow right now, it snowed 46 inches last month and it's pretty much been under 32 degrees so there is little melt-age. The snow piles were so huge that when I walk my leg would sink in up to my waist. To add on to the excitement, the pile extends the entire length of the parking lot and it is extremely good for tunnel making. Although, it's not so terrific for snowman building. We are supposed to be getting a giant blizzard tomorrow though so perhaps that snow will be good in that department.

Woke up super early for class this morning. Since I got ready so fast (literally in like 10 minutes or less...) I decided that I needed some coffee so I walked down to Beanz. Amanda and her roommate happened to be there already so we waited --forever-- for them to open up the darn coffeeshop and I finally got a chai latte! Which I am currently in love with and I wish that I had a giant tub of that stuff right now. Just got back from Design Survey and 3d. Design survey was ridiculous as always and we just had a critique in 3d so that was a good start for an early Monday morning. I'm just waiting for Ashley to get back now so that we can go get some lunch! Class again at 2 and then I can go play in the snow piles again!! I mean... uh.... do some homework!

Somedays All I Do Is Watch the Sky

Snow, Snow, Snow! It has officially snowed in Rochester. No accumulation yet, but there were some definite flurries yesterday from about 3 am until 6 pm-- very pretty. Looking at the forecast, I think it has decided that it is not quite time for a heavy dump-- although a few hours north of us there was between 6 and 12 inches...

Anyway, let's see what's new... I don't think this week has been overly excited.. just a lot more of the usual homework, class, sleep, homework but that's not always a bad thing. This week has been oddly short, I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday! Next week is week ten-- the last week of the quarter. Let's just say I almost need my toes in order to count the number of things that I need to get done..

Wednesday morning Ashley and I got up around 9:30 and went to the SAU to make hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I got an email through habitat for humanity a while back that asked for volunteers so I decided to sign up for it. It was run by Hillel ( Jewish Community) and Foodlink. They had hundreds of boxes of bread, peanut butter and jelly and we got our nifty paper hats on and got to work spreading peanut butter. Channel 12 News from Rochester showed up and actually filmed us so we were on the news sometime.. but I never got a chance to see it. I talked with someone from Foodlink about what they do etc and she suggested that if I was interested to volunteer at their warehouse sometime.. so, I came home yesterday and emailed a guy at Foodlink and I'm going to be going in to volunteer on November 8th! Foodlink is not a soup kitchen or whatever you wanna call it.. it's a food distribution center which means they go to places like Wegmans and ask for food donations and then distribute that food out to local soup kitchens. That way there is one person, rather than 12 going to Wegmans for donations.

This morning I woke up bright and early at 6:30 am... haven't seen that hour on the front side of my day in a while. I had a 9 am job interview with admissions this morning so I got all bundled up in my coat and headed over there. Unlike most interviews, it was a group one so there were 4 people interviewing 5 applicants.. interesting. We're supposed to hear back either tonight or tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. If I do get the job, it would mean that I could blog for RIT that all of the perspective students read... I think that'd be pretty awesome because I blog already anyway =)

Well, I can't really promise to update much for the next week or so... but the last class of the quarter is on November 7th, so I'll have tons of time then!

As long as you're here... take a look at the survey question at the top right of the page... you can click to vote! I just picked this question because it seemed appropriate for the time of year but I will be putting other ones up eventually.. just thought I'd point it out!