Goodbye weekend, goodbye. A ramble.

What a weekend. Finished the second (near-final?) draft of my proposal. Made cookies. Went running in the rain. Graded student assignments that were decent to good, maybe three bad ones in the batch. Had an enjoyable dinner with some Soc people, though I will note that the only thing worse than a group of people who can't stop talking shop is having people from outside the shop come and make the group talk about shop, especially when the group intended to escape the shop. Hit the town with Eric and some of his boys and was joined by Tiffany and Melissa in full pursuit of intoxication- fun ensued. Headed out this afternoon for lunch at Fratello's got soaked so I came home and stayed here for the rest of the day staying dry and warm trying to prepare myself for my students' midterm on Thursday and bracing for the incoming literature reviews. I have been combing the Internet this weekend for things to do, jobs, and information about Summerfest. Didn't come up with much, but had a good time doing it. One more week of school before a week "off" and my trip to Los Angeles. Speaking of this trip, this is how it came about: Two Thursdays ago I was in my professor's office and we were talking about the Literature Review grading and I recalled that last semester I graded the Lit Reviews on the plane to and from Fresno where I had to go for my grandfather's memorial service and how well that dedicated time worked for getting the grading done. That led me to think about maybe going to CA for break, and then asking myself, why not? Then I asked Eric who I expected to blow the idea out of the water, but instead he said, sure. So now we are going. Yay! But I looked at the weather forecast and it is predicting rain- BOO! I hope that will change as it will but a snag in the plans to go to Knott's and the beach.

Limbo

I completed the second draft of my thesis proposal today so I feel somewhat elated but am fully aware that there will probably some additional revisions and it probably is not yet to defensible quality- which sucks. I need to get the proposal done and defended so I can get on with the analysis. But for now I am going to enjoy an opportunity to feel a little bit good about things and get some things done that I have let slip. I did a bunch of laundry but my apartment could use some TLC and I haven't done much baking lately so I might try a little of that.

I went vegetarian for Lent and it has been... okay. Eric and I went to Woodman's to grocery shop on Sunday. It was an interesting shopping trip. There is, of course, plenty of food available for vegetarians but making this change in my diet has made me (and as a result Eric) much more aware of what I (we) eat. Since Eric doesn't actually buy much when we go grocery shopping and has little food that is his in his house (most of it being left over from occupation by is cousin or aunt), my diet impacts his diet heavily. In the frozen dinner section there were precious few meals without meat, I had never noticed this before. Woodmans has a whole row including frozen foods for the health, vegan, and organic foods so that was a good place to go for yummy stuff I can eat. I got a few dinners and two Amy's burrito type things. Everything I have eaten so far has been good, except for the Jeweled Rice I made but that is because brown rice is sometimes difficult to deal with.

Eric and I are heading to Los Angeles for Spring Break in ten days. Yay! I am hoping for temperatures of 60+ each day we are there. The only things on the schedule so far are Knott's Berry Farm and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. We also try to take in some ethnic foods of various kinds. Eric wants to go to a noodle house. I think he will find they are similar to those here in Milwaukee. I want to visit the ocean but I don't know if it is going to be warm enough for a good beach trip. Eric chuckled at me when I said that- he reminded me that he went in Lake Michigan on New Years Day- water temperature maybe 35, air temperature 20, wind chill making it about -10. I guess it will be warmer in California than that!!