Almost on Vacation

Yay! Tomorrow we fly off to NY to see Edward, Allison, and of course...Emmydoos (my brother's pooch). We can't wait! All that stands between me and the flight is finishing my statistics midterm and laundry. I'd so much rather focus on the latter rather than the former.

We also need to figure out how to program our new sprinkler timer and electronic valve system so our recently-planted veggie garden won't die while we're away. On Sunday afternoon we planted all those tomatoes, basil, parsely, dill, and onion plants that I grew from seed back in February. After all that work we came inside to relax and watch some TV. The forecast came on and it said it would hit 100 degrees by Wednesday. Holy crap! We looked at each other in dismay, thinking that all our back-breaking work could be dried to a crisp while we're in NY. Even with plenty of water I'm not sure those tiny plants can survive that sort of heat so soon after being planted. Keep your fingers crossed!

I had to give a talk yesterday evening in my foods class. The professor is a food chemist and an engineer so I was a little nervous about her high expectations. The class is physical chemistry and if you don't know what that implies, I promise you that you don't want to know. (It is basically the mathematics that explains all of chemistry--energies, motions of molecules, etc.) Unlike the other students in the class I'm NOT a hardcore chemistry student, nor am I an engineer. So this class is a little intimidating. However, it is my favorite class I've taken in graduate school because it is a challenge but so interesting at the same time. Overall I think I presented well. When they started asking questions it was tougher. The professor asked some very detailed questions about the energies of interaction between the polymers, the water, and the salt in the system. I had to cough up the equation and work through it. She seemed satisfied with my answers, even though she had to coach me through it a little bit. I kept thinking to myself "Why is she asking me this? This is NOT my oral qualifying exam, lady! Ask easier questions!" When in reality, professors assign presentations like this to prep us for our orals, and I do appreciate the opportunity to practice answering tough questions. (I hope I did well; I have a hard time "reading" this professor. I can't tell if she likes me or thinks I'm completely stupid. She said she wouldn't give us our grades until the very end because she tends to grade harder on the earlier talks. And I was the very first person to present...)

Anyway, now that the dreaded presentation is over all I need to finish is my stats midterm, which, like all our other assignments, is take-home and work-with-all-your-classmates type of thing. It'll be a long day of stats but I know I'll be able to do it.

Here we come, NY!