I'm just saying...

What is the deal with the “turn table bag holder” at Wal-mart and at what point did it become my responsibility to make sure all the bags from the turn table make it back into my basket before I walk away from the cashier? I mean, I agreeably take full responsibility for my items as they go from my basket onto the conveyer belt approaching the cashier, and I always make sure I place the mighty barrier divider between my items and the items of other shoppers…I will sometimes even place the divider behind my items as a courtesy to the shopper behind me who is carelessly dumping all of their items onto the conveyer belt that are suddenly threatening to infiltrate my own items. However, once the cashier scans my items and begins placing them into bags and spinning the turn table, I feel the items are still within his/her realm and that (out of boundary respect for the cashier and to make sure I don’t appear bossy and/or grabby) I should not remove the bags until the cashier has taken them from the silver prongs and placed them on top of the turn table. I recognize that the cashier will usually do a quick spin of the table to check for items in bags, but small items randomly placed into bags by themselves are easily mistaken for empty bags, and there’s also the possibility that the final spin did not go all the way around, leaving some areas of the turn table unchecked. Plus they spin it so fast that no one can see at that speed so who really knows?
So, I’m just saying…make sure you get all your bags off the turn table before you leave the store.

Another semester for the books...

Today my senior design group gave our presentation and submitted our final report. Aaahhhh it feels good to be done with that! I still have my report to finish for my ethics class that's due on Friday, but I'll be working on that with a glass of wine on hand....

Well it's finals week yet again...Only one more week to go, then only one more semester to go. I can't believe I'm finally able to see the finish line! There's still so much to do before Wednesday. I'm mostly worried about our Senior Design presentation. My group goes first on Wednesday at 1:30pm, and we are not ready at all. The team dynamics of my group are not exactly optimal. But, we did have a pretty difficult design challenge. I know we'll get through it - I'm mostly worried about the Q&A session immediately after. I know my professors are not going to let us get away without at least 2 or 3 questions being asked.
Well I've wasted enough time and although I have numerous items I need to get off my chest, my mind is not able to let go of the Math Methods final I need to keep working on. So, I'm forced to leave my ranting for another post. Until then....

Wishing it wasn't already Sunday...

Well it's Sunday morning and I'm sitting here realizing all of the things I need to do for school this week. I've only actually completed one homework assignment, and still have one homework assignment, one final report to write for Ethics, one senior design report, one senior design presentation, and a test on Wednesday. I am wishing it was Wednesday again and that I'd planned a little better.

But one great thing has happened this morning...I found my paycheck that I thought I'd lost! I'd even resorted to digging through the empty dog food cans and used coffee filters in the trash looking for it. As I had my head in the trash, Dexter came at satly proudly beside me as if to say, "She's my mom, she's a trash digger, and I love her....I love my trash-digger mom!"

Anyway, I'm enjoying my last morning before I have to go back to work and school tomorrow. I've been playing with the dogs...we have a new dog Maggie. She's a black lab and she's beautiful!

Happy Turkey Day!

It is now midnight, Thanksgiving night and it's been a great day. Josh has been off the last two days and won't have to go back to work until Sunday night. I'm out of school until Monday, and there are only two weeks of school left in this semester!! So I've enjoyed my break from school, but there's still quite a bit to do.

Wednesday morning, Josh got home from work and we went to eat pancakes at the Cracker Barrel. Have you ever noticed that Cracker Barrel pancakes have a thin, perfectly crunchy outer shell that feels just right in your mouth? How do they do that? They're the best.... At the restaurant, Josh bought two rubber band airplanes that we came home and raced in the street. They actually launched only a few times, and Josh's always did better than mine. The weather was perfect, the breeze was just right, and we had a great time. Then we came in a took a nap on the couch with our new dog (a beautiful black lab) Maggie plopping herself down on top of us and taking a nap herself. I woke up and went in to work for a few hours but it wasn't too bad. Then we went to Market Street and got a few slices each of pizza! Such a nice day!

This morning, we got up and cooked a few dishes and appetizers to take over to Mom and Doug's house for lunch. We ate early (around 12:30pm) so that Doug's daughter and her friends could come. It was great! As of about 30 minutes ago, I was still eating! On top of stuffing myself with turkey and the fixins, I've had three pieces of pie, the rest of the stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs, and I'm fighting the urge to raid the refrigerator two eat the last two pieces of lemon merrinque pie before Josh wakes up and has a chance to eat them. They're mine! As I was telling a friend of mine, there's nothing like a holiday dinner to bring out suppressed compulsive tendancies and eating disorders. I can't wait until tomorrow so I can "legitimately" eat some more.

I've agreed to run a half marathon with some friends of mine in January. I've been jogging 2-4 miles a few times a week for the past three months, but now I've got to get on it and start pushing myself more. Which is good because it's going to take running a few extra miles a day to work off all this food I've consumed, as well as what I'm going to consume between now and Christmas!

Well Josh has been passed out on the couch for about 4 hours now and there is no sign of him waking up any time soon - I think I'll join him! It's been a great day.

God bless Firefighters....

This morning, my thoughts are with the countless number of firefighters, professional and volunteer, who are fighting a losing battle against the blazing monster reigning at present time in California. My brother is a firefighter paramedic in San Angelo, Texas and I feel so much better knowing there are men (and women) like my brother who are on constant watch to keep me safe. These remarkable people risk their lives every single day to save us, to save our pets, and to save our homes. I am always touched by these humble heroes . So this morning I offer up a prayer of thanks for firefighters. God, give them strength, courage, and fuel their tired spirits. Bless them for their tireless actions, and help them in their battle against a seemingly unstoppable force. Support your local firefighters. Be involved in supporting them and their families, just as they are involved in keeping you and your family safe.

Just in time for Fall..

Well, once school started I put almost all extracurricular activity on hold, as usual. I've been staying so busy and have experienced my regular supply of ups and downs. Since I last posted in July, I had a birthday, started my senior year at MSU, began tutoring for the Adult Literacy Council, found out my brother's wife is pregnant, had an incredible 3 day tent revival at my church, and found Martha the Cat's five baby kittens (she was hit by a car about a week and a half ago). Tonight me, Josh, Mom and Doug are going to the Mercy Me concert at a church here in town. My friend Patrick won the tickets from the local Christian radio station but he couldn't go. I'm pretty excited about it. Then next month the university is sending me and my two professors I co-authored the educational research paper with to Boston to the ASME International Conference. MSU is paying for us to stay the entire conference so we'll be gone 5 days. I'm really excited about seeing Boston, and it'll be nice to get a little break from school. When I start feeling a little bad about the fact that MSU is sending me on this trip that is allowing me to miss 4 days of school, I just think back to the 8 months I spent when I gave up all my freetime in order to make this paper a success. It's pretty cool. But I'll definately be updating and getting some more pictures on here. I also need to update Dexter here too. It's been quite a surprise watching him grow up. Stay tuned for more!!

Happy 4th of July!

Unfortunately, I'm working on this our day of independence. Josh and I spent the first part of the week visiting my dad at his cabin outside Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and I wish we were still there! Nice cool weather, no work, sleeping 9 1/2 hours every night....aaaahhhh.....Anyway, I don't get vacation time, so I'm taking advantage of having the place to myself to get some things done today and make up some of the hours I took off.

I've stayed pretty busy - two weeks ago, I gave the sermon at our Sunday night service. I was a little nervous walking up to the podium and getting the microphone hooked onto my blouse, but as soon as I got started, I had a really good time! I guess that comes with speaking about something you're passionate about. It went over really well, and I'm actually looking forward to my next turn! Maybe I'll stick my sermon at the end of this post.

I put an application in to be appointed to one of the City Boards or Commissions. I don't think any of the commissions I signed up to be considered for are in need of placement right now, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and get my name in the works. The next City Council meeting is next week, so we'll see if I get a phone call. (It never hurts to hope!)

Next week, I start summer classes. I'm only taking a physics class and it only lasts for one month so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm also starting the training to become an Adult Literacy tutor. Actually, orientation starts on Tuesday and I believe the training actually begins the following week; which is okay - that will give me next week to get my mind back on "school track." I'm so ready to be done with school!

Break's over....back to work for now, have to finish tonight...

Meet Dexter...

Okay so it's been almost two weeks and I've been pretty busy.
Quick rundown: we found out we had a gas leak at our house.
The original owners of our hose teed off a gas line that ran to a floor heater in the garage. That's where the leak was, and why we didn't smell it. We wondered why we were having $100 gas bills during warm months....Josh smokes, and he'd been in and out of the garage working on his motorcycle. Luckily he always opened the garage up and pulled his motorcycle out before working on it. It's a weird feeling knowing your garage and your husband could have blown up. I could complain about the cost of getting it all fixed but it basically comes down to this:

Total amount unneccesarily paid to the Gas Company: $315
Tools, parts and gas caps: $50
Plumber: $300
City Inspector: $175
Our garage not blowing up: Priceless

I had taken the afternoon off from work to help Josh fix the gas leak, and heard a desparate meowing coming from the other side of the garage. I followed it around and found one of Not-Martha's new kittens crying and clawing at the side of the neighbor's garage. Not-Martha is a neighborhood stray that looks like Martha the Cat but is in fact not Martha. Not-Martha had three kittens that were about 4 weeks old, and they were all very skittish. I'd noticed the day before that there were only two kittens with Not-Martha, and now here was this one. It's eyes were completely crusted over and swollen shut. It looked so bad that I thought maybe it had lost it's eyes altogether. His little tongue was hanging out, and he was completely infested with fleas. It was the most pitiful little thing I'd ever seen! So I wrapped him up in a towel and drove to the vet. $100 later, I had a new indoor cat! He had a respiratory infection, and the fleas were killing him. The vet said "If" he made it, to bring him back in two weeks. This coming Thursday will be two weeks and Dexter is a beautiful, feisty little kitten!

This is Dexter the second day after I found him.

His face looks a little greasy because I'd just put medicine in his eyes. It's been difficult to get a recent picture of him because he rarely sits still. Frankie the Dog is getting used to him. We were a little worried about how they would get along until the day I found Dexter sitting in Frankie's food bowl and Frankie eating around him. Frankie's a good ol' boy! Here's a few more pictures, the most recent at the bottom.

A Big Day

Well, I'm having a mini celebration this evening, and by mini I mean me since Josh is working tonight. I am very excited to say that my prof and I finished our paper and submitted it to ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) this afternoon! I've been working on this material since January and I have a real sense of accomplishment this evening. I've especially been working on my portion of the paper since the semester ended, and have spent hours at school over this past weekend. I celebrated by going to the gym. I got home and wondered for just a second about what I would do this evening, then remembered I have all the necessary ingredients to make a raspberry martini.

So now I wait until July 28th, when we find out if our paper is to be published. Regardless, this has been an experience of a lifetime, and the highlight of my undergraduate academic career. We're going to start on a new angle of the research on Friday, which hopefully will result in a published paper as well.

For now, I'm going to take a long hot shower and relax for the rest of the evening....or actually, I'll probably start looking over the proofs for the next research project.

Have a lovely evening!

Needing to vent a little...

I'm a little frustrated this evening. First of all, I'm out of Black Cherry creamer, and I don't feel like having vanilla.

What do you do when the only person capable of standing in the way of something IS doing ALL they can to stand in the way of EVERYTHING? How do you get someone off their soapbox when it IS actually their soapbox to stand on? An organization I have come to love very much is in a great deal of trouble. I have sadly come to realize just how arrogant and condescending this certain person is. I am in a position to make some changes and to get people motivated to take some initiatives, but unfortunately, this person is beginning to set up road blocks to everything we're trying to accomplish. This person, for some reason, thinks we haven't proven that we're good enough to accomplish some things we're really excited about doing. Personally, I think he's afraid of us actually succeeding. If he doesn't want to have some faith in us, then he can remove himself from the situation, and let us deal with the ups and downs ourselves. I am not afraid to give this my very best shot. I am afraid of what will happen to our organization if this person doesn't stop sabotaging us and himself. I'm afraid this is going to be a difficult road, and I'm not willing to accept failure as a possible outcome...but with as many good people as we have willing to work together, we won't fail.

Lord, give me strength to face the challenges presented to me with a strong and driven heart, and a focused and knowledgable mind. Help me to become the leader you need me to be.

Carrie-Anne's Guide to Top Drawer Traveling...

A couple of years ago, I took a fabulous vacation to Europe (England, Itlay, school in France) and learned several hard, quick lessons on travel. For those of you who are traveling, especially to Europe, take a look at these quick and easy quidelines before you go...
http://myonethousandthingstosee.blogspot.com/2007/04/carrie-annes-guide-to-top-drawer.html
And if you do end up reading my little travel blog, just know that I unfortunately didn't finish getting all my pictures uploaded and stories written yet. But I will.....

Have a great day!

Well I got my hair cut...

Well I got my hair cut...and I love it!! Cute bob hair cut...great color (dark blond with light blond chunky highlights). The stylist did a perfect job of giving me exactly the hair I wanted! Yea!! I'll get some pictures uploaded when I can...hopefully tomorrow. I have about a foot long braid to send in to Locks of Love. If you have long hair and have been thinking about cutting it, go to http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html to get the guidelines for acceptable donations and the mailing address. Locks of Love uses donated hair to create hair prosthetics (wigs) for children with cancer. It's a fabulous organization, and these children will receive the wigs for virtually no cost depending on financial status. It's a really great website so you should check it out!

Today was a pretty good day. I went to work for a few hours then my faculty advisor and I met with the chair of the Mechanical Engineering Dept so he could give us his opinion on our paper. The deadline is June 2nd, so we're down to the wire, and I'm really ready to get this done and submitted! I was a little nervous, since I've had the chair for a few classes and I wasn't sure how he would like my portion of the paper. I am so pleased to say that he told me that I really did an excellant job and that he was very pleasantly surprised. Aaahhh...approval. Why is it that no matter how many people tell you they see how hard you're working and what a great job you're doing, there's always someone we still seek approval from. Well anyway, it was really nice to hear it from him. My faculty advisor has been working with me on this research and this paper since January of this year, and I couldn't have made it through without his constant encouragement. Speaking of which, I should be making my last minute changes to the paper right now. We're meeting tomorrow afternoon to put it all together as the Final Paper, or as I like to call it, the Final Paper Last Revision Version No. 4. But we're pretty sure we'll mean it this time. Dear Lord I hope so!

Also a quick note that we got our George W money today! Woohoo! Thanks George!

To Climb a Mountain...

Today is the anniversary of the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest which occured on May29, 1953 by two gentlemen, Hillary and Tenzing. Apparently three days before, two other climbers, Bourdillon and Evans, came within 100 meters of reaching the summit, and turned back due to exhaustion. Seriously?! I can not imagine being so close to reaching such a phenomenal goal and having to turn back, only to have it reached days later by someone else; or to feel that level of physical and mental exhaustion that would allow you to justify turning back. Every night I go to bed with the intent of waking up more determined than I was the day before; because every day is one whole day closer to doing all the things I want to do..but that's only true if I make the most of every single day. So I now have a new standard of exhaustion before I will justify giving up...am I experiencing respiratory failure, throwing up uncontrollably, hallucinating, and have bodily fluids frozen to my face and legs? If not, then there's no excuse.

What summits are you striving to reach?

I'm Ready for a Vacation...

Good morning! I'm moving slow this morning. Kathie and Stephanie are spending their first morning in Costa Rica on a mission trip with 39 other church members, and I can't wait to hear all about it! My friend Laura is on a two week road trip to New York, I have classmates going to Florida, California and the Caribbean...I'm getting ready to go to work, and then to school to work on my paper. But that's okay, because the harder I work now, the more opportunities I'll have later. Josh and I are planning to meet my dad at his cabin in New Mexico in about a month and I'll be super ready to get out of town by then.

I'm watching the Today show right now and apparently the toilet is not working on the International Space Station. What do you suppose the service call would be for a plumber job like that?

My Dad was told last week by his doctor that he is now a severe diabetic. This was really scary news for all of us. Dad's handling it pretty well. We all have a lot of questions, but he's keeping us updated as he learns things as well. It all started with the ankle to groin blood clot they found in my dad's leg. Last night he said he was ready for them to quit telling him things that were wrong with him. He tries to stay pretty fit, doesn't eat too bad, so I guess it goes to show that you just can't prevent everything. Kathie was pretty hesitant to leave for the trip, and has a lot of people lined up to check up on Dad while they're gone.

Nothing much going on right now for me. I have an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow. I've been wanting to cut it short for about two years now and it's grown fairly long in the meantime. Since I just got paid, I decided to make and appointment and go for it! I'm trying really hard to stay excited about it, but I don't think Josh and I know my mom neither one want me to cut it off. So now I'm starting to second guess my decision. I'm just really needing to make a fun change and do something new and different for myself. I got a little overwhelmed this past semester and I'm still having a hard time getting out from under the clout. But I have 27 hours and 10 min to constantly worry about it so that's nice.

Well, the toast and eggs have been eaten and the coffee is gone so I guess I'd better get ready for work.

Do something fun for yourself today!

Happy Memorial Day!

The Black Cherry Café salutes our military men and women and their families and loved ones. Thank you so much for all of the sacrifices you have made for our great country. I will always be grateful and will always remember and honor those who have died for our country today, yesterday, through generations past. God Bless the USA!

I'm having lunch at the Café today. Hmmm, I'm having a mesquite smoked turkey and cheese sandwich with mayo and a delicious concoction of spicy brown mustard and horseradish, a large handful of parmesean potato chips (oh let's just go ahead and finish off the bag...sorry Josh), cinammon applesauce for dessert, and water to drink (but only because there's nothing else to drink in the house and I have too much else to do today to have a martini....well maybe just one martini...yes, actually a raspberry martini will do nicely).

Well, I had a busy morning. I did have my Black Cherry coffee, but I had it to go. The global controls research group I'm in at MSU has been meeting a couple of times a week since school's been out. It's very rewarding to be part of a small group of students who willingly meet early in the morning to learn new theoretical concepts for engineering. We're fortunate to have a professor who encourages us so much. I was supposed to work a little more on the paper I have due this week, but I just didn't have it in me...so my professor's going to meet me in the morning so we can get all of it together.

I got home from school around 9:30am and decided that I would do some of the things I said I was going to do yesterday. So I set out to plant Laura's veggie plants. I started clearing out where I decided would be the perfect spot and turns out, I'm not the only one who thought it was a great spot. I was horrified to discover that about a million ants already lived there! So after payday tomorrow I'm going to buy a blowtorch and take out all of them. I tried to go ahead and work around them, but realized what a stupid idea that was and decided instead to clean out the rock fountain on the opposite corner of the yard. Things were going nicely until the enormous spider emerged and took my hoe away from me. I ran in the house to escape it's clutches, sacrificing the hoe. About 10 minutes later I went back out and the spider was gone. I suddenly realized how much worse it was to know it was there, but not where... So I looked back to the ant side of the yard and saw that Martha the Cat was playing in the pile of leaves and twigs I'd found the million ants under, and that she now had ants crawling all over her. I finally got them off of her but I think she got a few bites. Poor baby...she was not happy at all...

So the score is: The Yard-1......Carrie-Anne and Martha-0

I do not, however, take defeat lightly so tomorrow, I will declare war on the unwelcome inhabitants of my yard.

Ahhh...Sunday Morning

It's a beautiful morning...last night we had some thunderstorms rolling through that apparently I missed most of. I spent the morning with my husband Josh, took my dog Frankie outside for a while, then fed my cat and her 4 kittens. When Josh and I bought our lovely pointy yellow house, we were adopted by a stray cat who I named Martha. Martha had kittens about two months ago. Josh is very allergic to cats so they'll have to remain outsiders. And apparently the word is out because I think we also feed about 4 other cats in the neighborhood. We had an older couple move in next door and the woman puts food out on her side porch for the cats. Trouble is, I think sometimes she mixes in table scraps which seem to be a little harsh for the cats. One afternoon I so clearly recall, all the cats got sick and were throwing up in my yard.

Anyway, a friend and fellow classmate of mine, Laura, gave me two tomato plants, two pepper plants, potted mint, and a mystery plant (strawberry?) that she started growing in long planters at her apartment. They're getting big enough that they need to be planted, so she bravely and of her own will gave them to me. So since today I'm going to plant them in the yard, I found this extremely nice and optimistic quote:

"Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. " ~Douglas William Jerrold, about Australia, A Land of Plenty.

Interesting...My mom also gave me a potted pink Gerber daisy I need to plant. It's really cute.

I've also agreed to run a marathon (26.2 miles, I think) with Laura on December 15th this year. I guess I enjoy pain and nausea. Laura didn't exactly tell me everything my body would go through during the 26 miles of "running" so I looked online to see what I could do to better prepare myself. One of the first suggestions I read was I should avoid getting runner's diarrhea. That's all it said. I would love to NOT get runner's diarrhea. So I do still have some researching and diet planning to do, but I'll get there. It's been a while since I've been in what you might call "great" shape, so Laura made me a running schedule to help me build up to the big day. So, today, I'm also planning to run for a bit.

But now I must get ready for church. I'm the chairman of our Worship committee at my church, and several of us are working to put together a Revival for early fall. It's already had its ups and downs, and I'm learning a lot about the politics of church and religion. I'm a preacher's daughter so I grew up in the church and understand that there is a political side to it all...but it's still sometimes pretty interesting and even a little disheartening at times to encounter. However, it is all making me stronger and wiser...qualities which I'll need throughout my future political career. But regardless of the ups and down, it's is going to be the best foot-stompin', banjo playin', Gospel preachin' revival our church as ever had. There are so many people who want to help out, and want to get involved, and I can not wait for it all to come together. You'll read about it here folks! (Unless you can come!)

Have a great day!

Welcome to the Black Cherry Café

I love to sit back sometimes and imagine how lovely it would be to open the doors of my very own cafe or coffeehouse. I see myself joining a friend or two at our favorite table in the corner, greeting my regulars, already knowing what they want, talking to fellow scholars about my latest journey, my latest publishing or book signing. Some days I might be wearing layered chiffon skirts and antique jewelry; other days, I might wear a pencil skirt with block heeled strappy shoes and a silk blouse as I take a slice of lemon merringue pie to my mama.

Ah well, since I'm still a full time student holding down a full time job, that hasn't quite happened yet. I have traveled a little though. Two years ago a friend and I flew to London, toured Italy for about two weeks, then attended a month long summer session of intensive french language in Grenoble, France. I would love to travel to Africa. One of my big future goals is to organize a mission trip to Tanzania, Africa, to teach and to build homes and churches, and while I'm there I want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

I have another goal to become an elected political official. I'll start with the city government and see where it goes from there. I have a lot of ideas, and a great deal of motivation and desire to make a difference in this world.

But first, I suppose I'll have to graduate. I'm a senior now, majoring in mechanical engineering. This past semester, I had an opportunity to research control systems with my advisor, which resulted in a presentation at a regional conference. Right now we're putting finishing touches on an educational paper revolving around my undergraduate research with the hopes of getting my first publication. The paper is due June 2nd, and I'll find out by July 28th....so cross your fingers and I'll let you know.

I've become somewhat of a morning person, and I'm going to try to begin each morning with a thought, a scripture, a goal to reach, a motivation...I need to keep my mind focused and positive, and I'm hoping this will help me stay on track. So...I'll meet you here in the morning for a cup of coffee (with Black Cherry Streusel creamer and whipped creme on top)... Have a great night!