My Name is Tim, I'm a Lesser Known Character

If you don't know that lyric, too bad so sad...that means you haven't been listening to nearly enough Rancid. In case you have all forgotten (and I'm assuming most of you have), tonight is the much-anticipated Rancid concert. I am very excited, but am refraining from using too many exclamation points because I've begun to suspect it makes me look foolish. Do you think it is blaspemous that I am planning on working on my Anatomy flash cards on the way to the concert? Can I still pretend to be hip and with it (or as hip and with it as I can ever manage to be) after that?

In some sad news, the last surviving fish in my tank bit the bullet last night. We tested all aspects of my water last night, and everything checked out. I suspect a disease called ich is what did them in. Unfortunately, I have a live rock in my tank, and the medicine for ich can't be used with live rock. The thing to do in that case (which I did not do at all) is get a small tank set up for medicating fish. Also, if it was ich, the reading I've done has lead me to believe I should wait 8 weeks again before putting any more fish in the tank. Oy.

I just started reading a book called "Animals in Translation", written by an autistic woman and recommended to me by the guy who maintains the plants in our office (who hadn't read it, actually). It's a very interesting insight into the minds of animals. Perhaps I will write more about it later.

Back to the grindstone...

Kind of Like a Pirate

Me and Melvin, hanging out.

Tuesday Thoughts

It's funny how when you have more things going on in your life, the blogging seems to decrease substantially. I've noticed the lack of blogging/internet activity since school has started for most people I know. The same can be said for myself: I'm juggling a full time job, 7 credits worth of classes, a boyfriend, a dog who requires frequent walking, cat/rat/fish maintenance, trying to get/stay in shape, new and old friends both and family. Whew!

This weekend was a good example of my juggling act. My brother zoomed into town from Fargo on Friday, so we spent the evening hanging out at my mom's. She made stew and bread, which was wonderful, and we countered the good food with the last week 2 workout in Couch-to-5k. Saturday Chester and I got up early in anticipation of the Dog Whisperer (Cesar Millan) seminar, which we were going to with my mom. It seemed wrong to go and learn about being a good pack leader and the importance of walks without walking our own dog, so we made sure to accomplish that first. It was a very cool thing to be a part of--Cesar is very funny and intelligent. The icing on the cake: they placed 100 nametags under seats, and if you were lucky enough to get one, you got to stay after the seminar and meet Cesar/get an autograph. Alas, I was not lucky in this respect--but I was fortunate enough to have a lucky boyfriend who is quite fond of me. We waited in line and got to chat with Cesar for a few seconds before he signed a book for me and took a picture with us (I believe they'll post it on Cesar's website, so I'll post it when I get my paws on it).

We headed home after the show and got ready to have some new friends over for a barbecue. It was nice--people talked, and more importantly, listened. We barbecued, hung out around our new fire pit and roasted marshmallows for s'mores, and then headed in to warm up with a few rousing songs of DDR. It was a kind of fun I haven't had in a while, and I was glad for it.

Sunday, Jack and I braved the dreary, rainy weather to walk around Lake Harriet with another new friend and her dog. Despite my sogginess, I enjoyed the scenery and the company.

We headed over to my mom's again in the evening for my little brother's 16th birthday. More good food was had, and the company was delightful. I suppose it didn't hurt that Casey had gotten Guitar Hero for his birthday and we happily took turns playing that.

Despite the juggling, it was a fantastic weekend!

Red River Weekend

After spending the day recuperating (read: cleaning), I decided to go ahead and post some pictures from my Fargo weekend while telling the exciting things that we did--click on the pictures to get a closer look.

This is the very beginning of our trip. This picture is misleading because while we were in bad traffic for a short time, it only took us about 4 hours to make the trip instead of the normal 3 1/2. Still, it makes for drama.



As you can see, we were both quite excited to be heading westerly.





I do think our esteemed host was excited for our visit as well.

I asked Chester and Garrett, David's roommate, to smile nicely for this picture. They seem to have tried.

I told David I wanted to take a picture of his bedroom.

He told me that he would make his bed and then I could take a picture of it too.

Nice, right? It's a 3/4 full-size, custom made to fit in the little niche in his room.

This is the sole decoration hanging on the wall in David's room. It was a kindly gift from his previous roommates, which I assume must have originally been filled with candy to elicit such sentimentality from David.

David's tiny new amp, which has a deceivingly large sound.

The apartment they live in is "garden level", which means it's about half underground. This five-legged and rather large neighbor was right outside the window.

Chester and David tried on some spiffy hats in the brand new Hot Topic in the West Acres Mall.

Later that night, we went to Johnny Carino's for some chocolate cake. There were 11 people there, but somehow this was the only picture that ended up on my camera. I wonder if I should be concerned that this wasn't a posed picture, but my natural reaction to being surprised with my own camera?

We finally did make it to the skatepark on Sunday afternoon (it was raining all weekend), but there were too many people there for me to want to skateboard. People tend to watch you when you're the only girl there, and my legs tend to get wobbly when I know I'm being watched.

There were some cool painted buffalo near downtown Fargo. I saw one that was painted with Van Gogh's Starry Night, but I couldn't find it again to take a picture of. This one was neat too, though.

The trip home: I got some new shoes while in Fargo and wanted to show them off.

Exciting Things

I know, you're probably thinking that another happy blog from me is one happy blog too many. But I was thinking of exciting things and wanted to share them.

1. Today we are leaving for Fargo. I love Fargo this time of year, when college students abound. It makes me feel young again. I also love the skatepark, my brother, and my friends that are there. Not necessarily in that order.

2. Next weekend Cesar Millan, aka The Dog Whisperer, is going to be in the Twin Cities and I have tickets for me, Chester and my mom. Cesar is one of my favorite people, from what I have seen. If you have taken any psychology courses, you probably know what a self-actualized person is. If you haven't, Google it. I think that Cesar is self-actualized. It never ceases to amaze me at the levels of patience he keeps with both people and animals.

3. It is the birthday of my brother Casey on Sept. 10. It will be a day of celebrating his 16th year, cake, presents and good times!

4. Rancid, one of my very favorite bands, is going to be in the Cities on Sept. 13. I have not seen them in concert yet, unless you count a few minutes when I caught the trail end of a show at Warped Tour 2001.

5. On Oct. 21, I will be putting my Couch-to-5k training to use and running the Big Woods 5k in Faribault, MN. Anyone that reads this blog is duly invited to attend (see what words you can learn working in a law firm?).

6. I just learned that I can get a bus pass through my school that costs $80.00 and is valid until 12/31. To put this in perspective, I spend $80/month on bus passes. Yeehaw!

7. My mom and I went to a lake not too far from my house and walked around, and then ventured to some trails we had never been on before. They were gorgeous...it's hard to believe that places like that can exist in a bustling city.