HA!

no, Rae, I am not pregnant. Nor do I have any intention of being any time in the near future. Regardless of how damn cute my little munchkin neice and nephew are, I still concur with my old coworker trek when he says that AIDS and pregnancy are the two worst STDs you can get. I'm sure that will change eventually, but I'm happy with my freedom at this point in time.

I am, however, published again. I just got the article reprints yesterday and MAN ARE THEY EXCITING. and by exciting I mean "ohmygod this is the boringest. article. ever." It was an article I worked on with some colleagues at Michigan before I left and it dealt with my former line of work (web development-related stuff) so it's boring even for ME to read.

BUT. on an exciting note, a member of the editorial board for a new and very cool journal has asked my former boss if we would submit a manuscript to them for the next volume. Since the work that they want to see is based on my research I will be first author, and thus, have the majority of the work to do. sweetness, right? To be asked to submit an article to a journal is like, crazy or something, so we feel very honored. the downside? they want the manuscript in for review before thanksgiving. so that means lots-o-work for me in the evenings and weekends. We also have a bunch of projects that need to be wrapped up at work in the next month, so needless to say, the work situation is a little nutty. But I love what I do so much that I can't imagine doing anything else at this point in time.

I spent the weekend up at our cabin with my dad and my uncle john, and that was a fun time. My boss insisted that I take off early on Friday so that I wouldn't be driving into the wee hours of the morning. I was glad that she did because the color as I drove north up the coast of Lake Michigan was phenomenally gorgeous. I'm finally getting to the point where I can enjoy the things that my mother really liked again, at least a little bit. I will say that the weekend before last, it was really, really hard to listen to Christmas carols with Dice on the way back to Chicago. But hopefully with time I'll be able to enjoy all aspects of the season again.

When I got up north on Friday night I found a big ball of worms in the toilet. how gross is that? I called my dad, who was still on his way up, freaking out because EW! GROSS! they were just squirming around down at the bottom of the toilet bowl. He just laughed at me and told me to flush them down. I couldn't use that toilet so I went and used the other bathroom and left that one for my dad to take care of. evidently he said that's normal because they'll climb up through the plumbing lines, seeking out warmth. but seriously. EW.

the other great adventure of Friday evening was when I started a fire and didn't realize that the flue wasn't open until it was too late. actually, I realized it immediately, but the flames were reaching so high that I couldn't reach in and open the flue right away so it took a little bit to find something that I could use to grasp the little handle. so yeah, that was WAY FUN, with the house all overflowing with smoke and all of that.

Saturday morning my dad woke me up at 6:30 stupid time to ask me HOW TO OPEN A BROWSER WINDOW on my computer. good grief. I swear I am not his child. He said he had been trying for an hour, but couldn't figure it out. I decided I might as well just get up for the day because he was bound to have 50 more questions within the next 10 minutes. He mapped out a bike route for me and I took the beauty out for a spin on the hilly terrain. Between the wind and the hills at the beginning, middle, and end of the ride, it was a pretty awesome workout. My dad and uncle spent the time following me around in the truck so they could take pictures of the color going on up there.

by the time we got back it was late afternoon and we were ready to watch football, so we headed to the bar to watch Penn State almost blow the game against Indiana. after a few big ass beers we headed back to the cabin so that my dad and I could take a nap in front of the Ohio State/Michigan State game and then we literally watched football the entire rest of the day. Seriously. from 3:30-12:30 that night, we watched football. OSU/MSU. Kansas/Colorado. Michigan (EEEEEE!)/Illinois. LSU/Auburn. lots of switching to catch the scores in between. EEEEEEEEEE! god I love college football. It's been a hell of a season for just about everyone. You just don't get fall seasons that are as exciting as this one. I'm excited to see what happens in the next five weeks, with all of the unbeaten teams destined to lose and with the crazy beating the SEC is giving each other and all. good grief!

Sunday morning we went walking on one of the trails in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. My dad insisted after 2.5 miles that I was trying to kill him with all the rigorous hiking up hills. They weren't even sandy. we were in a wooded part of the lakeshore. He swears that if we put an aquafina vending machine on that trail that we'd make millions.

I headed home on Sunday evening and made it back in record time. As much as I hate all the driving (especially by myself) I was really glad that I got to make it up again this year. And it was nice to get to see my dad without any of the other kids around. I'm still the baby (and like to be paid attention to mostest!) at heart.

a late shoutout to MoMo because it was her BIRF-DAY on Sunday. she's the one of the crazychicas that goes courageously into each year before the rest of us, so that we can all observe her to see what being a year older is really like. And yes, I sang her (part of) the song.

ok. enough randomness for now. mouse out.