Making Up for Bad Luck

The Delaware Humane Society is giving free spay and neutering to black cats for Halloween.

Get the Door! It's the Kitty!

Anyone who knows Sydney knows that she sometimes has "crazy spells" where she goes a little nutty. Usually she runs around the apartment. Sometimes, she bangs on the patio door or the window, like she's trying to dig her way out or tries to stick her too-big paw in the very slight crack between the patio doors. More recently, she has attempted to get out the front door. She stretches very tall to try to bat at the door knob. She can only get one paw up there, but she's trying to figure out how to get both.

Poor thing. When she finally turns the knob, she'll be crushed because the door is still locked. Mom said that that was mean. I asked, "So, I should unlock it?" She said yes. I agreed. If Syd manages to turn the knob, I will go over and unlock the door and let her out. She earned it. I haven't decided if I'll help her back in or make her figure out the door knob again.

Congratulations, Jessie!

Jessie got a 1 on her English proficiency test. That means that her English is excellent for a German.

My New Sport

When I went to the gym today, I walked past a racquetball court, where one girl had a lacrosse stick and a volleyball and the other girl returned the "serves". It's my new favorite sport.... I'm guessing. It's a great game in theory.

Frank proposed an extreme version--using a bowling ball. I took it one step further: the lacrosse stick is on fire. Frank acted like that was too much. Too extreme for him? Wuss.

FRYBRID

On my way home from Malvern, I saw a car with the license plate "FRYBRID". The plate totally made sense when I saw the sticker "Runs on 100% Vegetable Oil." The car connoisseur that I am, the only thing I can tell you about the car is that it was gray. (I spelled "connoisseur" correctly on the first fry! Er, try!)

How I Spent My Birthday

Thank you for the happy birthday wishes!

I had a nice, quiet birthday. I had lots of little celebrations Saturday through Wednesday, which may be why I feel like I almost missed my birthday. I'm just being ungrateful, but I kind of wanted something a bit bigger.

I went to visit Frank. I met him at his brother and April's house, and then we went to Frank's work. His two-year-old niece Ava was very happy to see me. When Frank told her that we had to go to work, she suggested that he go to work and I stay. (Frank's feelings were a little hurt, but, let's face it, I am fun.)

Ava especially liked my striped purple shirt (from my "real web page"'s front-page). She pointed out, "Sara has colors. Sara has stripes." She also noticed, "Sara has a clock on her arm." She would follow me around and repeat what I said. (Had to watch my language.) Frank gave me a card with a cat and fish on the front (like Syd and her short-lived pet Mario) and wrote a message inside. Ava asked me to read to her about the cat and the fish.

I brought Ava a stuffed hippo from Madagascar. She was a little scared of it, so that didn't go over well. I then flooded the bathroom, which Frank and April cleaned up while I read to April. Then, it was time to go to work. So, in a short period of time, I terrified Ava, flooded the bathroom, and then said, "Smell you later!" Give me a break, it was my birthday!

Happy Reggie Jackson Day!

For the first time in 29 years, I didn't wake up at 6:12 a.m. to acknowledge my birthday. Allergies were bothering me last night, and I just plum forgot when I set my alarm! When I woke up this morning, I had to think really hard to verify that it was my birthday.

You know, I think the above statement is inaccurate. I don't know when I started the 6:12 wakeup, but I'm pretty sure I didn't do it when I was 1 year old. Or even 8 years old. So, maybe it's only been 15 years...

My Favorite Picture of Us

Yes, it's also the only picture of us. Frank dislikes the picture because of what I'm wearing. We argued about what I was wearing before the photo was taken, and we can relive that argument everytime we see the photo. I jokingly suggested we get a Glamour Shots photo instead, and I think he likes that idea. I don't know why his approval bothers me...

Love Your Body Day

It comes as no surprise that UD is celebrating Love Your Body Day on my birthday.

Sara at the San Diego Zoo

Sara, monkeying around:


Here's the featured baby panda:


This silly polar bear put on quite a show. He loved that water jug and pushing it on his face.

The Type of Sense of Humor that Takes Getting Used To

While we were in San Diego, I became closer with all the people on the trip. Besides Emily, I didn't really know any of them very well. Sherol told me that she went to the beach with her friend and that there was a surfing contest. I asked how she did. She kind of stopped then said, "I don't surf!" Sherol told me that my sense of humor took awhile to get used to. (I had a couple similar comments before too, but I can't remember them.) I don't know why "funny" is hard to get used to. Anyway, she wants to introduce me to her from Elice (I don't think I'm spelling that right) because she has a similar sense of humor. Elice sounds really cool.

Rashida said, "You know you are a lot of fun." Duuuh.

New Song List

Dad was thinking about the best songs with colors in the title. Specifically, he was thinking about the colors of the spectrum:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet

Dad thinks that he has some winners with "Orange Colored Sky", "Mood Indigo", and "Violets of Dawn". The others require more thought.

Jessie responded, "Yellow I would think would be easy: Yellow Submarine. Or are there others with yellow in the title?"

To which Dad said, "In my defense, I would like to say Duh. Good call."

Other nominees:

Red

Red Rubber Ball
Lady in Red
Red Skies at Night

Green

Bein' Green (frontrunner)
Greensleeves
Green Onions
Green Tambourine

My Trip to San Diego

I'm posting from San Diego. (Ain't the internet grand?)

I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I was in the Ph.D. Forum. I'm always a wreck when presenting. This time the feedback was basically "well-structured, well-delivered talk; needs to make eye contact; needs enthusiam; nice smiles." I'm still processing this feedback. We'll see how I factor it into my talks and into my job talk.

The highlight of the trip was seeing Sally Ride give a great talk. Childhood heros are so cool. I'm disappointed that I didn't get my picture taken with her for my Christmas letter. I'll have to talk to Patrick about making that picture for me.

At the end of her talk, there was a Q&A. The final question was "Seriously: do you or have you ever owned a Mustang?" She laughed and said that the question had dogged her her entire life. It took me a second, but I figured out what the reference was. (Hint)

I will have to post a picture of the polar bears at the San Diego zoo later. I don't have a picture with me and the polar bears either.

While at the conference, I got to reunite with some former and current Dukies. I found out that I have more loyal followers than I thought. Makes me a little writing-shy, but I'll get over it.