Nemo? He's not here right now.

A couple of Christmas's ago, B got a fish tank. Freshwater fish, of course. Apparently salt water fish are a huge pain in the butt.


Right now, there are only four fish- a sucker fish for the algae and three others. This is due largely in part to a bloodfin tetra we dubbed "Jaws," who had a nasty habit of eating the other fish in the tank. In case you live under a rock, here's a brief (30 second) summary of the Jaws movie. Plus bunnies. If you like it, more ridiculous bunny reenactments can be found here. Hope you enjoy it!

Packing

I'll be moving back to campus in a mere three days. Naturally, this is both very exciting and dreadful. Where did the summer go?!! I have no idea, personally. It seems like it just zoomed by! Anyway, today was a preparation day for move in and life on campus. I went shopping with my mom and B to get the necessary school supplies and other miscellaneous things I needed, then started to organize all of the things that are coming with me.


Like my clothes. I think I have too many. That looks like a lot. How I manage to fit that all into a tiny dorm closet and dresser is probably bordering on miraculous.


Snacks are also very important. How else are you supposed to stay fueled during a late-night studying session the night before a test? Everything on campus is closed by 10.


Last but not least, a small selection of non-nook, non-required books. I mean, how am I expected to live without my beloved collection of Shakespeare? What if I need to prove to someone that it was not Hamlet, but Polonius, who uttered the well known, "to thine own self be true," quote? (Clueless, anyone?)

Emmy Watching

Today's picture, if you somehow can't tell, was not taken on my camera. I guess things like screenshots and Photo Booth are kind of bending the rules, but I'm ok with that. Anyway, I snapped today's picture using Photo Booth while I was watching the Emmys.


And I must say, I love Claire Danes' dress :) (picture via MTV's website)

Botanical Gardens

One of the things I really like about living around Madison is the number of free things there are to do. Like visiting Olbirch Botanical Gardens, which Jon and I did this afternoon.


We started out in the sunken garden, a traditional English type of garden.


Then we ran into these lovely, huge hibiscus flowers.


When we reached this bridge, I knew we were getting close to my favorite part of the gardens.


The Thai Pavilion! It's one of only four of these pavilions located outside of Thailand, which definitely makes it something worth seeing.


Detail of the inside of the pavilion. You're not supposed to touch it all, since the gold leaf is actually thinner than paper and the oils from your hands can damage it. It's really intricately patterned, and absolutely gorgeous to see.


Later, we got to the tower-type construct they have there, which had this lovely view of some of the grounds.


The Jon found a sun dial, but couldn't really figure it out. Apparently the sun is an hour behind?


I liked the conservatory, where they keep a lot of tropical plants. Look at how HUGE those leaves are! They're almost as big as I am!


We also found some quails, which apparently help keep invasive bugs out of the conservatory. I thought they were just there to look cute and be kinda funny.

Week W

I spent the majority of this week watching my little cousin, W. Here's how it went:

Sunday
I got there Sunday evening, so we had dinner and then W went to bed. And I kind of forgot to take a picture until after that. But once he was in bed, I started watching the BBC/A&E adaption of Pride and Prejudice.


I must say, it was VASTLY superior to the newer film version with Keira Knightly and Adrian Brody. Colin Firth was an absolutely wonderful Darcy, and the entire thing was just so much more in tune with the novel. Naturally, I loved it :)

Monday
Aunt Anne had a hair cut, so W and I got some quality time to play "Sunny Day"


Sunny Day being W-speak for Sesame Street. I was Mr. Hooper. And Elmo. Dub was anyone he wanted to be at the time. lol

Tuesday
Tuesday was a bit of a free day, since Anne didn't have any plans and therefore didn't really need a sitter. We decided to spend the day at the Milwaukee Zoo, and ended up having a blast.


A wild W in his natural habitat- anywhere he can be having fun!


We also rode the zoo train, which was pretty awesome.


However, I think we had the most fun in the petting zoo. W attracted goats like nothing else. At first they kind of overwhelmed him, but then he (kind of) got the hang of feeding them and got more used to them.

Wednesday
Wednesday, W found my giraffe, and dragged him everywhere. He even got a diaper for a little while.


Here they are sharing a delicious afternoon snack of milk and cookies.

Thursday
W was a popular little guy on Thursday- he made and received several calls from Uncle Jim, Nicky, and Sophie.


I doubt any of them are aware of this, however, as he was using a disconnected phone.

Friday
Yesterday I babysat Evan and Tyler instead of William, then drove up to school to pick up Jon for the weekend, since campus is doing weird stuff this weekend.


Attempt number two of us trying to get a picture together. I think we're getting better at it!

Hiatus

There will be a brief hiatus from regular posting this week, as I will be out of town watching W. I will, of course, continue to take a picture each day and will post them when I get back. In the meantime, my friend here will be keeping an eye on things.


That's right. Optimus Prime is watching you. Behave yourselves.

Family Stuff

This morning, Dad ran in the Madison Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles- half a marathon). To celebrate, we got lunch at the Great Dane. Quite delicious. Then, we went to my grandparent's, to celebrate my Grandpa Jim's 75th birthday. They made an excellent dinner for everyone, and most of Mom's family came, along with Grandpa's sister and her husband. It was really nice to see everyone- there was a lot of sitting around and talking.


Unless you were W. Then there was running around and falling over and dancing with pink flip flops and all kinds of other ridiculousness. Here he is dancing around near the stairs and being a goof in general. What a cutie!

Girlfriends!

Friday night, I met up with my friends Beth and Jacey (and later Rachel), and went to a club in Madison. We met at Beth's apartment to get pretty and have girl time first.


Pre club picture of Beth and Jacey, since we looked pretty gross afterward from dancing. It got REALLY hot. You would have thought they'd have super AC or fans on or something, and maybe they did and we couldn't tell, but man it was hot in there.

Breakfast

I woke up kind of early this morning (for a college student on summer vacation, anyway), so I decided it would be a good idea to make a real breakfast for myself.


Hash browns with bacon and cheese and a big glass of orange juice. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. I wish I could say it was a good start to a productive day, but I didn't really do a whole lot. I watched Yes Man with B, then walked around Kohl's and the mall until it was time to pick mom up from work.

Whatsit Wednesday

Ok, I stole the title from the Daily Squee, but it's very fitting. I think so, anyway. Now, onto the whatsit!


Here's what we know about the whatsit:
-It's a puppet
-It's from the Milwaukee Zoo
-It's supposed to be a giraffe.

Here's what we suspect about the whatsit:
-It's a bunny disguised as a giraffe, OR
-It's a giraffebunny

What do you think? Giraffe? Bunny in disguise? Giraffebunny hybrid? Or just really cute?

One Year Ago Today

About a year and a half ago, I decided I wanted to try growing my hair out. Then, a few months in, I decided to cut it shorter (though not as short as it had been). Finally I decided that I was really going to try growing it out.


I took this picture exactly one year ago from today, shortly after making the decision to stick with growing it.


And this is me today, trying to recreate most of that picture. Look at my hair! This is pretty much the longest it's ever been, which is probably strange for a lot of girls. Exciting for me, though :) Let's see how long my patience with it lasts, and maybe in a year it will be even longer.

More W, More Zoo

Aunt Anne and W came to visit again today. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to go to the Children's Museum, the zoo, or the botanical gardens, so we asked W and the zoo was a clear winner. First, though, we stopped by DSW to look for some shoes.


The little man had fun trying on shoes that were much too big for him, climbing on the shelves, and running down the aisles.


At the zoo, we took a ride on the train. It was kind of a short ride, but I think that once they finish some of the construction they've got going on right now, it will be extended through more of the zoo.


This guy was the most exciting animal today. Most of the time, he's hiding somewhere back in the trees and you can barely see him, but today he was out prowling around the entire exhibit. We actually saw him a couple times as we checked out the animals around him. It was very cool.

Moving Weekend

I stayed at the boy's place with them through this weekend so that I could help Jon move from his apartment back to campus. (He's moving in early for training for a USRH position).

Friday
We didn't do a whole lot, but I did get a bunch of free new ebooks from Barnes & Noble, which is always awesome.


This was the most exciting by far. I read it my sophomore year in high school and loved it, so once I finish reading all of the new books on my reading list, this will be one of the first that I reread.

Saturday
We started packing up Jon's stuff so it would be ready to go when he could move in today.


Of course, when boys try to pack, it ends up being a really disorganized mess. Cause in point: Jon couldn't find his clean clothes this morning. We also saw the Expendables, which was an really good movie :)

Sunday
Jon and I were really busy finishing up his packing and loading everything up and moving him into the new building, but we did have some fun.


For example, Jon rode around on this wheeled tv stand for a bit in between using it to roll stuff to the car. Once we were done, we went out for dinner too, and had a really delicious wood-fired pizza. Now I'm just watching some Heroes with my sisters until we feel like going to bed.

Words, words, words.

You know how sometimes people get songs stuck in their heads? Well, I get words stuck in my head, too. Yesterday, it was the word "reticulated." I don't know why. I don't know how. It just popped in there. I knew I had heard it before, but not where or in relation to what. I don't know the definition of the word. Just the word, and a faint idea that it was somehow related to animals. So I googled it, and found this:


I figured I must have spent enough time at the zoo this summer that at some point or other, I read a sign in the reptile house or near the giraffes. So I googled to find out what kind of pythons and giraffes the zoo has. The first thing I found? No reticulated pythons. Just a green tree python. So that's out. But they do have reticulated giraffes!


It took Jon and I close to an hour to figure out where the word came from. That's probably kind of sad, but it did keep us occupied and our minds off the heat for awhile.

(ok, this picture is not from yesterday- it's from the weekend we went to the zoo with W, back in the Dub Day post. But the screenshot is from the conversation yesterday.)

Coffee and Construction

Ok, I admit, it's probably not very exciting to keep seeing the different mugs that the Firefly has. However, I love them, so I'm going to keep posting them.


Brenna and I are here again this afternoon to get out of the house for a bit and enjoy the ever-wonderful hot chocolate (despite it being a gajillion degrees out). Now, in slightly more interesting news, there is a huge crane next door today!


They're putting the roof on the new house. The crane, obviously, is helping them hoist the roof pieces up there. It's kind of cool to watch. If I didn't feel like such a creeper, I'd get a short video of it. Oh well.

Edit:
I just realized something really exciting! This is my 100th blog post! How exciting :)


Bonus picture of the Gentlepenguin. He approves.

Penguins

Ok, yesterday's picture is actually a screenshot from one of the websites I was at, because I thought it was funny.


I was trying to check out the Pibgorn comics on GoComics, and they were having some technical difficulties. Apparently, penguins were behind it. Crazy penguins in fruit hats!

Trooper

Roughly 20 minutes ago, I realized that I still hadn't taken today's picture. This was definitely cause for concern, because once dinner has past, I'm really not thinking about interesting things to take pictures of. Fortunately, Trooper decided to come and hang out with me/have cuddle time with my fluffy pink socks.


And here he is, in all of his canine glory. Actually, I thought he kinda looked like a log, so I tried to get a better picture.


Then I realized that as long as he keeps his legs curled in like that, he's pretty much going to look like a log no matter what. But at least now you can see his face! Isn't he sleepy looking? He's probably exhausted- he was really itchy and allergic today. Poor guy :(

Orchids

For her birthday, my Aunt Mary gave my mom and orchid plant. I think it's absolutely lovely, but then again orchids are some of my favorites.


According to it's tag, it's a type of phalaenopsis.

Family and Friends

Yesterday was really fun: Mom, Soph, Bren, and I went to Aunt Anne and Uncle Chris's in the morning for a mini girl's day (Aunt Marcia and Aunt Jill were there, too!), and then I went out with a couple of my girlfriends for a birthday :)


W had a sweet window set up with all of his favorite "Sunny Day" characters when we got there. Here he is being adorable, as usual.


Aunt Anne made an angel food cake for after lunch, to celebrate Mom and Aunt Jill's recent birthdays. W pulled a chunk off for himself while Aunt Anne was in the kitchen, but the rest of us got regular slices and fresh strawberries.


Me and my girlfriends before we left to celebrate Beth's birthday. Left to right: Beth, Angie, Jacey, and Me. We had dinner downtown, missed our show at the comedy club because we were running late, and stopped at a couple of the bars on capital square.


Right before we left, I got this picture of the capital building. I thought it looked pretty cool all lit up like that. I didn't know that they had colored lights on the dome, but I liked the contrast.

Down Time

Today was a nice lazy day. My sisters and I all stayed home and just relaxed. Mostly we watched Heroes.


Here are Bren and Trooper hanging out after dinner and digesting before we (hopefully) go get ice cream.

More Firefly

We had a lot of fun hanging out at Barnes and Noble yesterday, but today we decided to try a different cafe- the Firefly (which is also where I met Phil the other day). Remember the fun mugs?


Brenna and i both got hot chocolate, and Sophie tried a mixed berry smoothie, which was a big hit.

In other, more exciting news, today also happens to be my mom's birthday! (She's turning 37 again.) Happy birthday Mom!