Pics

We ordered some expensive pictures today.

I think Dave's all pictured out.

Today was our Christmas with Shannon's family. I will post pictures sometime. But let me tell you some of the main things thus far. We spent 3 1/2 days at my mom's with her and my sisters, and Jerry and baby Nicole. It was quite nice. We ate yummy food and got to play with the marvelous baby Nicole. :)

Then we came to GC and we have seen much of Shannon's family and opened a second set of gifts. Good times are being had and we are next off to Colorado to see Shannon's dad.

Sugar Coated Fennel Seeds

Mom and I went to the Asian Market to find fish. Instead we found a plethera of fun foods, including what you see above. We bought some fun stuff. These fennel seeds were not purchased.

One thing we found were tapioca pearls, like they have in tea bubble drinks. We tried to make them go, but they lost all their color and looked a bit smaller than normal.

Good times.

Grinch socks

Aren't these the coolest socks ever! Shannon and I saw them at Target. They remind me so much of something you'd picture the Grinch wearing. I love them.

Oh What Fun.

Yesterday Shannon and I exchanged Wii's with Jenette and Chris. We opened them around 10:30 PM and I played until 3:00 AM. Shannon and them played until about 6:00 AM.

It's pretty fun. I look forward to getting other games. Wii Sports is fun and all, but the possibilities! Oh the possibilities! Shannon and I are playing boxing above. I won with a KO in Round 2.

Are you running?

Today ended it. My first semester of real graduate school is done. I didn't sit around in "classes" and pay 1000$ per A. I sat in classes and was paid. As for the outcomes, well, lets just say I am never again taking a class from Dr. Haiyan Wang. I had two classes this semester, STAT 713 Applications of Linear Models with Dr. Song and STAT 770 Statistical Theory I with Dr. Wang.

713 was a pretty good class. Learned stuff did homework for a grade and that I understood. I took the final today at 11:50 and feel I may have gotten an A, at least a B.

770 sucked. I did homework almost every day that isn't part of my grade and I didn't really learn much at all. I had that final today at 9:40 and cried afterwards. That's right, I shed tears over a test. It was the worst test I've ever taken. Not hardest, that award goes to my PLT Mathematics test for getting my teaching license. This test was just bad. There were 9 questions, four of which he had not talked about in class. I think I got two right and possibly a 3rd. But really, even 3 out of nine is only gonna get me a 33%. I just hope I don't have to re-take 770 next fall.

But you know what? It's over. In a few minutes I'm gonna go eat something and open up a Nintendo Wii and play for hours.

P.S. I'm glad I don't have to teach middle school for week still.

Go Bioassay. And go Experimental Design.

For Shannon's STAT350 final he had a wonderful extra credit problem. Qwantz is a web comic that uses the same template for each day. Just the words change. They go from funny, to funny. It's great.

Well, he used the template and had his students write a qwantz comic. There were a few good ones, but this was probably the best. You can click the picture to see a bigger version of it.

Warriors of Chaos

These are my most recent paintings. I finished them before Thanksgiving. They were a birthday gift from Shannon. I really like the way they came out. Not only do they look good, but I actually painted them a banner. It's not a great banner, but it is a banner with something on it. That's more than I usually do.


If I paint two more models, my Tzeentch Chaos army will be 2000 points. Yay.

Sno Bawls

We went to Dara's for a drink. Their bottled drinks are too expensive, so we looked at the slushies. They had Bawls in slushie form. Needless to say we got a 64 oz. slushies with half Bawls and half Mountain Dew. It is not only neat looking, but tasty.

There is a thumb of rule.

Tonight was the Statistics Department Christmas party at Dr. Boyer's house. I, the Stat Club president, picked up the meat and cheese tray before hand. While Shannon baked some Cheddar Bay Biscuits, then Jenette drove him there.

It was a good time. We ate, played a game and just sat around and talked. A nice time.

One thing of note that happened while we were there, I got a call on my phone. But it is better than that. I had just (and I mean just) finished going pee when my pants vibrated. I answered the phone (because that's what I do when it's Jayme). She was all excited (as Jayme usually is) and asked me about a Christmas song. Here's her problem... Sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and then help us out. Oh, and you have to sing it with the echo's. You know, like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer), Had a very shiny..." and so on.

Okay, sing it.






Did you sing it?

Now, when do you say "like a light bulb"? (I really would like to know, so please leave a comment and share. For Jayme's sake.)

*Bam*

It's not a great pic. But it is our Christmas Tree and it did post directly from my phone to this blog. Fabulous.

Now an example I don't remember.

That's right. She didn't remember the example she gave us in class. Brilliant.

So, Theory of Statistics I has been rough all semester. Last time we had an exam, she wanted us to come some night and take it. Psh. No.

So this time, for the final, it has to be really fun. What makes a test really fun? A couple of things.

1. It is the morning of the last day of finals.
2. It is part of a back-to-back finals day.
3. We can have as long as we want to work on it. So just stay (into the next final?) and work on it as long as you need. Bring food even.
4. Take it on Saturday.

What!?!

Yes, she asked us if we could come in Saturday, after finals were done, to take the test. No. I actually spoke out in class and said no. She asked why, I said I wasn't going to come in on Saturday to take the test. She asked when we could take it. I suggested the time the university has set aside for our class to take it, Friday morning.

Seriouslly, take it on Saturday! She wasn't kidding either. She's just crazy. Liquid Crazy.

The First Card

Today Shannon and I got our first Christmas card of the year. It was from my cousin Teresa and her boyfriend, Chris. Yay Teresa! Shannon and I are almost ready to send our cards out this year. By this weekend they should be on their merry way.


Speaking of merry. I have never seen one of these before. When we were leaving Target today, I noticed this Santa sticking about 6" out of the back of a green minivan. It's kinda cute. I don't want one, but it is a fun idea.

Pictures on a Fake Blog

Like Shannon, I now have a cell phone with a camera. Also like Shannon, it can not post to this blog. So I give you this blog to see my pictures. I will try to remember to move them to here, but in case I don't you can see them there.

...truck...Target... and do stuff.

When I was little I recall a lot of stains on my clothes. I used to stay away from white things. I am sure this is a problem for others as well. Although I do not have a fix for it, I do have something to say about it now.

I wash dishes (by hand because I have no dish washer). I do laundry. I started to notice that many of my clothes had stains around the waist area. Hmm. Odd. I used Dual Power Spray 'n Wash, some goo-ood stuff. Well. I eventually figured out that these stains were because I leaned on the sink as I washed the dished and splattered myself plenty. So now, I always wear an apron when I cook and when I clean. It has saved my clothes.

Dyno-Math!

Shannon found this comic. It's pretty funny. There's too many things to wikipedia link, so you can just go here and check out what you need too. Although, that may ruin part of the humor. If you don't know what the dino's are talking about, you can just smile at the fact that they are telling jokes and stomping on houses. How cute.

I can't wait for this semester to end.

Tonight we (Me, Shannon, Mom, Maria, Jenette, Chris, and Nic) are going to see The Hollywood Nutcracker at McCain. I'll be sure and let you know how it goes.

In other news, school is winding down and yesterday, my crazy Theory teacher turned around (in the middle of her introduction to the new stuff) and said "I can't wait for this semester to end." Then she waited for a minute with a silly smile on her face, turned around, and continued to teach us about the theory behind linear regression.

Nice to meet you Dave.

This morning it was 15 F when I walked to school. It was worse because it was windy. Brr. I wore my heavy coat though, and a hat. That helped a lot. But still rather cold.

Last night was game night and we made White Chili. It was good. But not like our Coke Chili. It's worth making in the winter for a good hearty soup. We also made cornbread muffins with real corn in them. That was pretty good too. Maria, Jenette, Chris, Aaron, Stephanie (or is it ff?), and Bug came. That was nice.

Well, on to some homework then class, then more homework, then more class, then seminar, then home. Ah. Home.

Maybe I'll give you a failing grade.

So, as you can see, yesterday, it was really warm. Set a new records it looks like. I wore a hoodie to school in the morning and was sweating a lot by the time I got to my office. It's really absurd to have it be 70+ in late November. After Thanksgiving and you could wear shorts outside and be comfortable (and not be Pickle).













Today on the other hand, and well, the next few days as well, the weather is completely different. It's really really cold. So cold that I really should have worn my Broncos hat to school. But don't be fooled, tomorrow I will wear it and my ears will not want to jump off my head and hide in my coat pockets.

**Really, it's not that cold. I'm sure Julia and Pickle have had much colder days already. It's just that a 40+ degree drop in temperature from one day to the next makes it feel really really cold.**

These are very important conceptions.

Today I began wearing my hoard of Christmas socks. To start things off, I kicked it old skool style. These bad boys not only feature the pre-animated Grinch, they are from Grandma and Grandpa Fuller.

This is cucumber.

This weekend was nice. We went to Garden for 3 nights, then to Wichita for 2 nights. Things got done.

Knitted with Michelle. This is her first attempt. I wonder how she is doing now...


Was awed by Rhonda's freezer organizational skills. She's got an awesome system of freezing things flat in bags with labels and then "filing" them away in her freezer basket. Works really well.

Watched football with Shannon, Michelle, Rhonda, Jeff, Bobbie, Brendan, Trevor, and Macy and the Baier's house. We also ate cheese and summer sausage. Yumm.

We also tried to find a coat for Shannon. This one was definately a top contender.

Holidays

So. Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We ate with Rhonda, Dave, and Michelle in GC. It was simple and nice. Now Shannon and I are in Wichita with Mom, Jayme, Maria, and Baby Nicole.

This morning Shannon, Michelle, and I got up at 5:30 am and went to Target. The line was as long as the parking lot! They didn't have any Wii's so we went to EB. We waited in line for about 45 minutes. EB had "enough" or 5. Luckily we were fifth in line, so we got one! Yay! Now I can add Wii accessories and games to my Wish Lists!

Speaking of which, here is my blog list. It's seperate from Amazon (button to right).

Pandora Rocks

So, Pandora rocks, right? And well, if I wanted to spend 250$ I could rock it Pandora style with my good home speakers. Thanks to Squeezebox.

Hallowen Scarf

I started my Halloween scarf about 2 weeks before Halloween. I finished it yesterday.

It is knitted with 6 orange stripes and the knots were I joined the two yarns are clearly visible. It is also very wide and rather short.

Better luck next time, Nicole.

Weekend 2

This weekend was our second weekend of this hockey season. It wasn't quite as "winny" as last weekend. In fact, it was much more "mercyy" than last. We lost all three. We did play two of the best teams in our division though. If that makes me feel any better. Also, Shannon and I each got penalties. I tripped a guy (for real this time). Shannon got called for interference (but really shouldn't have).

On a happy note. That happy looking, hula hoopin, guy above is our goalie, Matt. Or CornCob as he may soon become known as. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack. Friday was his birthday, so we sang to him while he wore, the "wig" and hula hooped. When he was done, he sat down and got nothing. That's right, nothing. Good times for the rest of us though.

Guess who has a PS3?

Yesterday Shannon and I finished what I thought was going to be an impossible puzzle. Andy gave us a popcorn tin + puzzle. The popcorn is delicious, but the puzzle was hardicious. We did it though.



This girl's got a PS3. Not me. It's usually me, when I say "guess who..." But this time it's her. It will probably neve be her again. So don't be fooled next time. I really hope she thinks it's worth it. I wonder if she's a happy person. I think she might be. She probably spent too much on it.

A New Multiplication

There are many ways to multiply. This is a way I have not seen before. Shannon found the video.


Easy Mental Multiplication Trick - video powered by Metacafe

Math Comic

from Newgen

**fyi**

Fine.

I use this all the time. So you should use it too.

p hat

I totally dipped that French.


mmm... mmm... toasty

Woo!

Yesterday unranked K-State played their last home game this season against #4 Texas, and won!!

It...was...awesome. A 45-42 win. All of our touchdowns came from our offense (nice change) and we had just about all of our yards from passing (another nice change). Good times.

After the win everyone rushed the field. It was so awesome. It'll be interesting to see how much Texas drops and what bowl we get invited to.

The Cinnamon Fairy

Someone cleaned our apartment and made it smell like apple butter. Mmm...

It's Coming

Christmas is coming. I've started to update my Amazon wish list. The first cool thing I found were these groovy socks. They come in all sorts of color combonations, including this K-State polka dot. Can you say sweet?

**I've added a quick button to my side bar for my wish list. Oh Amazon...**

Off to a Good Start

This last weekend was our first three hockey games for this season. We played St. Louis University on Saturday. We got mercied in that game, 10-0. Ouch. Then on Sunday we played Western Illinios Univeristy, and Southeast Missouri State University. We won the WIU game 10-7 and we lost the SEMO game 11-7. Did you read that, we won a game our first weekend! That is so good. We probably would have won the SEMO game, but Zac got suspended for "intent to injure" and Nate and Alex weren't there (the whole weekend). So that means we were down 3 of our best players. But it was a good time.

Shannon had a sweet wrap-around goal in the WIU game. Jeremiah had a big 4 goals! Awesome. I even got a shot on the goal that the goalie actually had to save in one game.

After the WIU game, one of the refs said, "Where's #9?" That was me, so I skated over. He put his hand out to shake mine and told me that I did a good job and that I had good positioning. That was nice. Also in that game, one of the WIU forwards told me (during a play) "good defense." I like that too.

On a not so happy note, Jenette took a pretty nasty fall in the last game and was down for about 3 minutes trying to breath normal again. Her back hit a skate hard and she got the wind knocked out of her and possibly a broken rib. Zac's mom is a chiropractic and said she couldn't tell if it was broke or not. It was quite scary. But she eventually was able to breathe better and got up. That sucked, not just because she was injured, but we were now down another defenseman. She was doing better by the time we got back home last night.

Despite the injuries and the losses, it was a pretty good weekend. A nice way to start our season.

Zombie Regression

I had a dream on Friday night. My dream was odd. It has some statistical terms, so I'll explain really quick.

-Linear Regression: A way to try and find a straight line model for a set of data.
-Parameters: The numbers you get when you do a regression.
-Testing: Testing to see which parameters you need and which you can remove from your model.
-Predictor: One of the things that has a possible effect on your data (model)
-Zombie: An undead being

The Dream (what I remember of it)
I had some data and I had to run a linear regression on it. I got my parameters and then proceeded to test them. This is all normal stuff to do. I only had 2 predictors in my model, so there wasn't too much to analyze. Well, I did my test and found that only one of my two predictors was needed. The only thing that was significant, was zombies.

I even remember waking up and and thinging that was a neat dream.

She is too cute.

Here is a picture of Baby Nicole from Halloween time. Isn't she too cute! She was a lobster for Halloween (pretty cute too). Oh, I am glad I get to see her at least once a month. She is so cute and changes so fast!

Happy Halloween!

I am going do dress up like a hockey player tonight. Then, I'm gonna play hockey.

Others though have dressed up and are dressing up. This is a pic my cousin Diana sent me of a friend of her's at a Halloween party she went to. He's a transformer. Awesome.


Also in attendance was the Price is Right wheel.

G-paps has a new kicthen

For Christmas, my New Jersey family redid my Grandpa's kitchen. It used to all old and gross.



Now it is all nice and pretty.

I am gonna help make curtains and other sewable items for it. Reminds me of another kitchen make-over this year. If only I had a kitchen.

Farming Game II

For my birthday, Shannon bought me Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life for the GameCube. It's a pretty fun game. You own a farm and have to do things with it. I am currently growing 3 watermelons, 2 tomatoes, and 6 strawberries. And I own 1 cow, 2 chickens, and a dog. It's a good cute game. Thanks, Shann!

9999

This blog is very close to 9,999 visitors (check bottom of right side bar). If you are 9,999, leave me a comment and tell me who you are and I will make you a prize!

What I Nice Birthday

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday (week) nice. Jenette found a song about ghost chickens, Maria wished me and baby me, Shannon, and Mom got me some stuff, Aaron gave me a Best Buy invite first, and Jayme, Mom, and Baby Nicole came up for the weekend. Chris even made me a video!



How wonderful.

Things Made

Many of you who know me, know I like to sew. I like to sew costumes because they are just so fun to design and make.

I wish I had a reason to dress up for Halloween. But I don't. Having hockey practice from 7-8 on Halloween makes it even harder to find a reason to dress up. But this got me thinking about all the fun I've had sewing over the years.

I made pirate costumes this summer.


2 years ago I made Jayme's wedding dress.


4 years ago I made brides' maid dresses for Michelle and I for Jenette and Chris's wedding.


5 years ago I made my wedding dress and the dresses for 5 of my brides maids. (this was pre-digital-camera for Shannon and I, so sorry no pic)

I've made some other stuff and a bunch of little things that didn't take more than a day. But I had forgotten about probably the coolest thing I ever made. When I was a sophomore in Honesdale, I was part of the band and we marched in costume in the Halloween parade. I made the neatest costume my sophomore year. I had taken a pattern my mom had saved and used when I was really young (she can correct me) but I was about 5, and made it much bigger. The result of my efforts was the coolest, most biggest Rainbow Brite costume ever. I am still proud of that costume to this day.


I have this one pic of it on a CD Shannon and I made for our wedding. In it are my old buddies Anna (beatnic) and Liz (cow). Oh, good times.

Pumpkin Fun

Last night's Game Nite was a special one, Maria and Nic came!


Shannon and I made pizza crusts and I made a pizza sauce and everyone was able to create their own pizza. (Everyone is Shannon, Jenette, Chris, Maria, Nic, and I). The crust was pretty good and the sauce was surprisingly good too. I did use half the honey called for. Anyway...

Ricotta cheese on pizza is good. :)

We then carved up some pumpkins. Maria and Nic had to go to volleyball practice. But the 4 of us stayed and finished. Two years ago we made Home Star Runner pumpkins. See? This year, I tried to find some more cool stencils. Zombie Pumpkin has a lot, but you have to pay for them. A lot of places had pretty lame ones. But I stumbled upon these, Star Wars stencils. Not everyone made one, just Chris and Nic started one. They are pretty neat though.

Here are the finished products. They are Jenette's Evil Fairy, my skull, Shannon's "I eat your Skin" man, and Chris' Storm Trooper.


While we carved, we watched some old movies Jenette and Chris got me last year for my birthday (which is Sunday). We watched all of I Eat Your Skin and part of The Last Man on Earth. I tell you what. Movies used to be really bad.

It was a pretty good time. Holidays are fun times.

Halloween Parties Missed

Some of my funnest memories of Lincoln Elementary school stem from the Halloween party. All the kids got to dress up and it was loads of fun. Now-a-days, students are not allowed to dress up. When I taught at JCMS, the principal said we couldn't dress up. Even if students payed a dollar for a fund-raiser and then wore a costume, they couldn't dress up. I reponded by wearing all black, with a slight bit of orange to show my support of the marvelous holiday.

Taking away Halloween from schools is sad. Teachers and students everywhere are going to miss wonderful costumes. Such as this fab zombie.

This is totally awesome.

Thanks to Grossman

The Snotvia Snotknockers had a bad game this week. Coming into the Monday Night Football game they were up 2 points over the Harbor Coast Red Burns (of Lance). All we needed to do was have Grossman have a decent game, and not throw to Muhammad a lot. What happened? Not that.

Grossman had only 149 passing yards, -7 rushing yards, 4 interceptions, and 2 lost fumbles. You will be sad to hear that the Snotknockers lost yet another game. This one by 1 point.

Braaains

The winner of the zombie t-shirt is:

I have my own shirt made, I don't have a pic of it yet. But it is done.

I am currently creating a cafepress store so you too can be stylin'. Perfect for Halloween time!

Too Much Homework

I really, really need to stop procrastinating. I was here all day yesterday (from 9:00 am to 12:30 am) with about 45 minutes break for food, and then 3 hour break for hockey meeting/320 Exam. I was doing homework, that I finished this morning. Yes. I am a slacker and it sucks. If you have homework to do now, finish reading this post, then go do it!

But I did find these Stat Calculators. This guy has a whole bunch of them and they are useful (and free).

It'll make my farts smell bad.

Sorry, but they already do.

Today was rainy and chilly. Not quite cold, but chilly. I'm glad it's getting to be a more wintery time. I do like the winter better than the summer. I also like the fall better than the summer. Well, heck, I like spring better than summer! If I had to rank, and I mean absolutely had to because if I didn't I'd get my hair cut off, I'd rank the seasons as follows, from least to best.

Summer
Spring
Fall
Winter

Electric Plumbing

Yesterday was a good day. K-State beat Oklahoma State. Thank goodness for that. The game was down to the last drive. Someone, with 3 minutes left and down 10 points, Freeman and company managed to get ahead and hold off about 6 tries by OSU from about the 15 to score a touchdown. Crazy. I felt so sick, sad, happy, worried, and sick again in the last few minutes of the game. Awesome.

More awesome...Willie was totallyl a pirate. How can you beat this. He looked really awesome (I think, I'm some people would disagree).


Then we went to see Jennifer, Shannon's friend from grad school. We joined her and her boyfriend, Matt, at their campsite and made some s'mores. Good times. I thought the log in the picture here looked like the head of some thing. The big knot (on the left) is like the eye and then it has a long snout (pointing down). See it?


Something I haven't done before, but Jennifer did and we all agreed was an excellent idea, put the chocolate on a pan or piece of foil and melt it by the fire, then put the melted chocolate on your s'more. Brilliant!

Then all of a sudden....

Yay, on the road again. We were going fine. Then about 5 miles east of Colby, the speedometer drops to 0, the blinker ceases to blink and the car starts to rev horribly. I don't stop, we are close to Colby. I keep the cruise control on and the we keep driving.

Shannon gets Jenette's phone and calls his sister Michelle, in Garden.

"Google for a place to get the car fixed in Colby."
"Denny's, phone is 785-462-0414."

Shannon calls them and we exit following his directions. We are waiting for 4th street and all the while I'm trying to keep the car moving. We went through a stop sign, got lucky with a green stop light, but then had to stop for a red one. All the while, the car is only registering every 3rd time I push the gas pedal. The car can't make it once we stop. So Shannon, Jenette, and Chris jump out and push the car into the nearest parking lot.


I'll save you the long story. What happened was Five Star Auto sucks and didn't fix anything. Denny came and towed the car to his shop and discovered it was the alternator (like just about everyone said) and replaced it. This is this took a while and that left us without a car for, oh the weekend.

Since the hockey team was behind us, they all met us in Colby, we ate lunch and then jammed our bodies into the remaining spots in the car, threw our stuff in the trailer, and went on to CO.


We played some fun hockey. We played four games and L5-6, L0-8, W6-3, and L2-4. It was better than it sounds. We probably should have ended 3-1 instead of 1-3.


We ate with Shannon's family, and spent the night at Gary's in Longmont. Monday we picked our car up and headed back to home (thanks to help from Gary).

On the way home, we had to get gas. We pulled into a Conoco, read the "sign" and drove across the street to the other, less "markery" gas station. Jenette said the one behind it looked even more ghetto.


P.S. Denny is the man.

On the Road Again

If you know your geography of Kansas, you will notice that it is not 90 miles from Abilene to Denver. Heck, it isn't 90 miles from Abilene to anywhere! Except for Russell, KS.


I noticed again that things were going wacky. This time the speedometer dropped to 0. Yes. Then the lights died. This was making for a crummy drive. We exited as soon as we could and were now dead in the middle of Kansas. Russell was a good 3 miles away and we didn't have a car to drive.

Well, we were in luck. Remember how I said Amber was meeting us in Hays for dinner? Well she was still behind us on the road and so we called her. She didn't have enough room in the car for all four of us and our stuff however. So after many callings and pacings, and even a failed jump-start of the car, a few things came to be:
a) It was probably the alternator (about, oh, everyone suggested this)
b) Amber's mom was going to drive the van out to get us
c) We were really freaking hungry

Five Star Auto Repair came and towed our car to Hays and worked on it Friday night. We dropped all our stuff off at Amber's house in Hays, and then ate at IHOP. Not quite as good as I would guess Gella's would have been, but food none-the-less. We did learn a lesson at IHOP, don't put syrup on their potato pancakes. Gross.

Tired and no longer hungry, we returned to Amber's house, went to bed, and when we woke up, there were scones and orange juice to eat. Shannon got the car with Amber and we were ready to travel again.

What did Five Star do to the car you ask?


They gave us another new battery, this time a green one. They said it wasn't the alternator and that it was the battery. So that was 2 batteries in about 1 hour. Nice.

We gassed up the now running car and headed back on our way (-270$ of course). We made sure we left early enough so that the rest of the hockey team was on the road behind us, just in case.