Team Meeting

I love team meetings! (Not just because they eat into time that I could be killing myself in the pool...)

We have team meetings with just the girls every so often, because Greg feels that we lack confidence in ourselves and so he holds meetings with little activities that sometimes seem stupid or just plain awkward...

Today he gave us three stickers. We had to adress someone on the team and have them stand up in front of everyone. Then you had to say why you like them, what they do to help you in practice, etc. Greg made us do this, because we don't seem to acknowledge a genuine compliment because we're insecure. So we're forced to accept one in front of the whole team!

Anyhow...before all this started, Greg likes to ask us how we're doing. And it's nice to hear people's comments, and be way glad that I'm not the only one! For example, lately, I just don't want to eat anymore. I used to eat a ton of food everyday, but nowadays, I kind of have to force myself to eat. Not fun. Well, that's been happening to a lot more people than I realized, and Greg explained it all for us: We're stressed because of finals, swimming is getting a lot harder, and now our bodies are shutting down, or trying to. And everyday that we don't eat enough, we're actually erasing some of the progress we've made. "you guys need to eat, even if you're not hungry. You need to take care of yourselves. I saw...(looks around, points at ME) this one walking to class with wet hair, and no hat! Just little things like that. You guys need to take better care of yourselves, especially when many of you are getting sick. No more making out with each other, you need to stay in control to stay healthy..."

The ironic thing is...I was cold that morning. But I got a hat and everything before practice tonight, so I'm covered. Don't worry ma and pa!

Thanksgiving and activities

Well, this year I didn't get as many pictures so... Willie and Poppy seemed to always want grandma's attention.

(yes, Poppy is pinching Will. I think if you maximize it, all three faces are amusing to look at. Poppy's face of mischievious delight, Will's just kind of sitting there, while Grandma makes an appropriate "oh!" face.)
In order to keep a very hyper Oscar still, we played a "game." You lie down on the ground, and you can't open your eyes, no matter what happens. Five minutes later "is this game over yet?"
Oscar valiantly keeping his eyes shut while Poppy practices being cute.

Ah ha! This is where things start to get fun, except for poor Will, who was starting to get sick. We drove up to the Jordan River to go on a walk and to hunt.

We weren't hunting for ducks, though...

Golf balls galore! It's like an easter egg hunt, but you have no idea how many eggs are out there, and what kind you'll find. With Oscar's, we found about fifty in the tall grass by the river. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun, despite all the burrs and brambles that caught me and got caught in my hair... I found the green one, by the way.

I am stupid. I am stupid. S-T-U-P-I-D.

Have you ever had those horrible days when you just want to hit yourself in the head over and over and over and over?

Yes, it's only 1:28 in the afternoon, but this day has already been very awful.
I wake up and go to practice, as usual. Good ol' coach Greg has made the kick circuit even harder, upgrading it to phase four. So I was very, very pooped by the end of practice, because we all know I'm not exactly the best kicker on the team. I ask Greg about the possibility of him giving me a workout to do on Friday in the morning so I don't have to drive all the way up there to work out right in the middle of the day (2-5). He gives me a dirty look and asked me what I could possibly be doing from 2-5 on a friday. Family! Gosh! Maybe I'll try talking to him tomorrow, only to give up and work out there from 2-5 on friday. Grr.
I walk over to the burb to study, since the chemistry lab lecture was canceled today.
Then I walk to my Chemistry "discussion," where we supposedly "discuss" things, except my TA is never there on time. Most of the time he's 20 minutes to a half-hour late. He was there early, passing out our graded exams from chemistry. That's the one good thing that happened today. I did very well, with my highest score ever on an exam in that class. Then the TA passed out some quizzes. Oh, joy. I'm never quite up to beat in chemistry and discussions, so I didn't know anything on the quiz. I really should have elected the no-quiz option so quizzes won't count...but I didn't. And these quizzes count.

Then I thought, "hey, today is Tuesday! There's no math class today because Tuesdays are review/discussion days for the weekly assignment, and there was no assignment for this week." So I fell asleep, deep, deep, happy sleep.
...Only to wake up in horror to remember something. Because of the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, the midterm for math was moved to today. I missed it.
The horror! The horror! How in the world could I have forgotten that? 15% of my grade is gone. Ugh! Arrrrr!

And we were just told to bring snorkels for dryland.

I could really use some encouragement. I thought about asking my math teacher if there was anyway to make up the test, but do I really have a reasonable excuse? "hey teach, I was taking a nap and forgot all about the test today. So...could I make it up somehow?"

I'm going to be sad if my grades are bad, because that means I'll be stuck at study table for the rest of my life.
Study table ain't that great. There's a fire alarm that self-tests itself every 35 seconds. Yes, I timed it. It is that loud and that annoying. The athletes here don't really study. Just talk loud and make lots of noise. I turn off my hearing aids, so don't worry.

I feel like a stupid incompetent idiot today. I can't wait to eat some turkey and yams on Thursday.

(ugh! arrrr! I'm so mad and sad!)

Have any of you guys done stupid things like me?

Snortkles

Dryland was very different today. How?
We had to wear our snorkles. Yes. Snorkles.
While we ran, we wore them. Pushups, we wore them. Everything, we wore them.
Half-way through the workout, coach made us strap tape over the opening, and punched a small hole through the tape, so we'll get SOME air.

Then we did full-out sprints.
Some laps around the Huntsman Center.
Push-ups.
More running.

All the while, we are not allowed to take it out of our mouth. (The point of the entire thing is to teach us to breathe in our mouth, out our nose. Then the smaller opening was to help us to keep our bodies under control even though we don't feel like we're getting enough air.)

There's one small problem of not being able to take the snorkel out of our mouth and breathing out of our nose. It's cold outside. Everyone's getting the sniffles. We're already drooling from the snorkel which is preventing us from closing our mouths.

Snot.

Lots of it.
Pouring down everyone's faces. No way to sniff it back up. No way to wipe it away, since the snorkel is obstructing our sleeves or hands to get to our nose.

Yup. Dryland was interesting today, as can be expected.

Chemistry Labs

Once a week I get to spend a couple of hours playing with chemicals, but nothing too explosive or fun. Usually we put together a bunch of different solutions, not really understanding what they are, and why we're putting them together. We only know that we need to record the temperature every minute for twenty minutes, and repeat the same experiment.

Then we get to move on and do almost the exact same thing, but with a different compound, or under different circumstances.

The most exciting thing we got to do yesterday was to burn a piece of Magnesium ribbon, to "observe" what happens.

To our delight we discovered that our tongs were crusted in residue copper, so it burned green (which Mg doesn't do...).

But that was it. We got to stir and stare at a thermometer for the rest of the lab.

I have found the chemistry lab to be an awkward place, however. I arrive right after swim practice, so I'm often sweaty and wet. Then we get to wear big safety glasses (in case that distilled dihydrogen monoxide just wants to tip right over!). If you aren't wearing pants and covered shoes, you get to don a garbage-bag skirt. Yup. They duct tape a garbage bag over your legs. If you walk anywhere, everyone will know, because you make a lovely swish swish swish noise with every step.

On top of all that, the tables are low enough that you have to bend at a 90 degree angle to correctly read the temperature or volume of a substance. The lab is set up so there's a person right behind you. When walking down in the aisles to retrieve more chemicals, it isn't uncommon to find that you can't squeeze between two rears, or you can just manage to squeeze, but it's really strange.

What's worse, is when you bend down to find, oh! You just butted someone you don't even know.

You quickly turn around, apologizing, blushing red, laughing nervously, then hurry and bend down back to your work--at an angle, so such a encounter won't happen again.

I guess that's why it's called chemistry...

Edge Version of Why the Chicken Crossed the Road

In case you haven't read the comments to my post a couple of times ago... I've decided to repost it here, because someone claimed that it was their favorite blog, but it wasn't even a blog! A compilation of comments was my masterpiece. That's just sad. :)

Jamison Fischer said...
mama - Stupid chicken, if it can't lay an egg, just let it cross the road. Hurry, lets get it and clip its wings before the neighbors find out we have chickens.

Lindsey said...
Because the book says its time for it to take a nap!

Ricky said...
It would cross the road to get away from the Wal-Mart.

Emily said...
Who CARES about stupid chickens?!

Willie said...
candy? candy?

Reed said...
Who cares? It's good target practice.

Natalie said...
Chicken? What chicken? What's going on right now? What did they say?

Mom said...
Maybe there were some good rocks over there!

Megan said...
Hey! How's it going?

Poppy said...
deebeedeebeedeebeedooo!

Oscar said...
Super Chicken! Raaawwwr!

Letty said...
To cross the finish line and smell the roses.

Bryan said...
To get a better investment and to eat some broccoli!

Carvel said...
Because it's uphill.

Micah said...
oy oy oy oy!
(slaps hands to side like a penguin)
(grins a huge smile)

Dad said...
NBD.



(if you feel that this isn't you, or if you're not on here, feel free to comment what yours is!)

Let's just say...

Well, coach is looking for a place for us to do our Christmas training. He really wants us out of Utah, away from our pool, but he wants unlimited pool access...
The Olympic Training Center in Colorado, (the OTC), was what he was counting on. They just called him to tell him (not nicely) that our swim team wasn't good enough to train there.
So...
We are left hanging.
And he's made dozens upon dozens of calls. It's too late to go somewhere in Canada or Mexico, because he doesn't think he can get our passports done in time.

The only place left wide open with unlimited pool access is in North Dakota.

I thought that sounded pretty cool, until everyone groaned. I've never been there, but apparently, it's very very cold there. When everyone whined, coach said that once it's 50 below, it's just cold. No big deal. He's been in places negative 101. Of course everyone asks the stupid question "was it cold?" And he says (get ready for it):

"Let's just say...it's an interesting sensation having your nose hairs freeze."

For Trekkies Only

I warned you in the title: Lots of these jokes are for people who are familiar with the show, otherwise this long post will be boring and stupid to them.... (The quotes in a different color are my favorite ones...)

The Star Trek Version Of Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?


Star Trek: The Next Generation

Picard: There are four lights!
Riker: I don't know why, but I know how: with pleasure, sir.
Troi: I feel the chicken's pain!
Data: The chicken, in observing that it was on the opposite side of the 20th century Terran paved roadway, was aware that its immediate goal should have been to traverse the distance without interception by any kind of combustion-propelled personal transport vehicle, but I am unclear as to why any kind of domesticated fowl should desire to perambulate upon a conveyance normally reserved for the usage of...yes, sir.
Geordi: Well, wherever it's going, I'm sure it'll have more luck with women than I do.
Worf: I don't know. Klingon chickens do not cross roads.
Dr. Crusher: If there's nothing wrong with the chicken, there must be something wrong with the universe.
Wesley: I'm not sure, but I can figure it out if I reroute these systems and reconfigure the warp field and run a complete internal whootchacallit on the computers and...
Q: Wouldn't you like to know? Too bad your puny human brain wouldn't be able to comprehend the answer.
Dr. Soran: His heart just wasn't in it. (Scenes of chicken torture with nanoprobes have been edited out.)
The Borg: Crossing the road is futile. The chicken will be assimilated.
Hugh the Borg: Maybe it just needed a big hug!


Star Trek: Deep Space 9

Sisko: It was seeking deeper meaning. Jake, do you see what we've learned from all this?
Kira: It was probably being chased by those cursed Cardassians.
Dax: To get to the other side. Kurzon might have disagreed with me, Tobin I'm sure wouldn't have had a clue, and then there's...
O'Brien: No problem, Commander, I'll get right on it.
Odo: I don't know, but I'm sure it must be Quark's fault.
Quark: Who, me?
Jake: Check out the babe that just came off that transport!
The Grand Nagus: Stupid chicken! You don't cross the road all at once! You sneak across it quietly, without anyone noticing!
Gul Dukat: Well, that's a very interesting question...I'm sure we can work out some kind of arrangement to obtain that information that will be to everyone's satisfaction.


Star Trek: Voyager

Janeway: If a chicken crossed the road then it is our responsibility as Starfleet officers to find out why. No matter how long or how far it takes us out of the way! Now who is with me?Chakotay: Whatever its reason, whatever its goals, we should respect its right to cross the road and seek its own spiritual awareness.
Tuvok: That's not a question we'd prefer to hear from a senior officer. It makes the junior officers nervous.
Paris: Well, I think that...say, that's a lovely shirt you're wearin'.
Neelix: Actually, Captain, I'm not really familiar with the chickens in this system. But, if you can catch it, I can cook it.
Kes: It was remembering back to the times when its ancestors crossed roads all the time! They lost those abilities because they stopped using them!
The EMH: How should I know? No one tells me anything around here. I didn't even know we added chickens to the crew. All I know is that it would have been nice, BEFORE the chicken went off to the cross the road, if it had remembered to turn me off!
B'Elanna: I'm sure it felt suffocated by all the bleeping regulations of bleeping Starfleet and just couldn't stand it any longer!
Harry: I don't know! It’s my first mission.
Seven of nine: It is irrelevant to our mission. The chicken should be left behind to suffer its own fate.
Icheb:I’m not sure, but if I look into our Borg information I could find out. Ahh! Here it is. It says “crossing…”


Star Trek: The Original Series

Kirk: You chicken monster, you killed my son... You chicken monster, you killed... my son. You chicken monster... youkilledmy ...son!
Spock: Fascinating,
Captain.Bones: I'm a doctor, not an ornithologist!
Scotty: Because she couldna take much morrrrre.
Uhura: Shall I open hailing frequencies so you can ask it, sir?
Chekov: It must have been on its way to assist in saving my life for the billionth time... did I scream this time?
Sulu: Don't call me Tiny!
Nurse Chapel: Oh, Spock
Harvey Mudd: Chicken? I don't remember any chicken. No, no, no, there's been a terrible misunderstanding.
Charlie X: Because it didn't want to stay...stay...stay...
V'Ger: To join with the Creator.
Khan: With my last breath I spit at the chicken.
Sarek: Sometimes logic fails me where chickens are concerned.
Sybok:To seek God, of course.

Rabbit sighting #4

Yup. I've spotted yet another rabbit at the university. I was walking back to my dorm from swim practice, and this one was happily chomping on the grass by the soccer field. It's situations like these that make me wish that I had a real camera on me all the time, rather than a cell-phone camera. It struck a lot of cute poses, but my phone can't zoom in on things, so...
This was the best I could do. It ran off when I accidentally stepped on a crunchy leaf the size of a dime. Dang!

Roald Dahl

As I was walking back to my dorm, for some strange reason, I started thinking about my favorite books I loved reading when I was younger. And many of the books that came to mind were written by the famous Roald Dahl.
What makes his literature so compelling to readers of every age?
I think it's because his stories were (and are) so unique, so realistic and believable. Plus, even when adults read his stories, they all chuckle and enjoy them. I think we all wish we had such a vivid imagination. I wish I still retained the huge imagination I had when I was younger. Where'd my blissful imaginary worlds go? I swore I would never forget them. But I never found the second star to the right. I grew up, grrr!

My favorite book of his will probably have to be "Boy." This is a simple yet hillarious compilation of his childhood experiences. Reading this book helps me see where he got all his ideas, and where many of his stories came from.

What do you think is so wonderful about his literature?