My week. In a List!
Topic: Lists
Things shaped my world this week:

1. Tiger, did in fact, drink from the toilet. It is his way of saying, "hey jerks that I live with, I'm out of water...AGAIN". It's been dry here, and he has decided that he is a camel.

2. Terri Schaivo's ordeal is over. CNN (who had given cruel coverage of the situation for the past months) had a touching article of Michael's compassion towards his wife. I was getting all teary! At work!

3. Fox 25 here in Boston showed the rescue of a dog from an lake where she had fallen through. (Yes, we still have ice on lakes up here in Antarctica.) THEN, the very next day, they had the dog (Sabrina) with her owners on the morning show! I heart Fox 25 in the morning. I'm a sucker for a pet rescue story. Pete promptly threatened Tiger that if he didn't behave, we would take him out to some iced over lake... (He was kidding, of course.)

4. My lab notebook is FABULOUS! I love it! It's quickly filling all the voids the old composition notebook was leaving in my journaling life.

5. Pete made the most awesome dinner this week. Marinated grilled chicken and asparagus. We stood in front of the grill (to keep warm), drank beer and had a good chat. It was a reminder that summer and grilling season is just around the corner.

6. Unfortunately, we've been watching the slow passing of a great man of God. Pope John Paul II's deteriorating health and eminent death is a reminder of many unpleasantries in life. My heart is heavy with grief for Catholics, Christians, and all people for whom he was an advocate of Christ's love.

Thirsty?
Topic: Quotable
Me: Honey, I think he's out of water.

Him: (sigh) I'll go lift the toilet lid...

You've Been Pittsnogled
Topic: Daily Posts

Thank you, March Madness. Pittsnogle is a household word, especially in this household.

Do You Flikr?
Well, I finally got around to creating a flikr account. And I'm pretty sure that it's addicting. They've had great sucess which should be largely attributed to the blog world. So much that they've been aquired by Yahoo. I've found all sorts of cool pictures on there. This is my favorite so far: Can you say "weekend waster"? I could totally spend a weekend screwing around to acheive this.

Happy Easter
In an effort NOT to repeat last week, Pete woke me up at 7:30 for 8:00 church. We got to 8:00 church to find that it started at 7:30. This time, we voluntarily stood in the back. We also learned that 7:30 church is not packed (as are most things that start at 7:30 on a Sunday morning....).

After returning from church we found that the Easter Dog hadn't left us any goodies, but had eaten an entire bag of Pete's Jelly Belly's.

He was sick for most of the afternoon. We still took him for a walk to enjoy the sunny weather.

Happy Easter!

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You
Topic: Daily Posts
This morning, after the dog woke me up at approximately 6:32 am to go outside, I let him out, took a potty break of my own, and tried to go back to sleep on a glorious Saturday morning. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, making it impossible not to get up. So, I did, waking up Pete in the process. I decided it was finally time to drop off at Goodwill 2 of the 3 bags of clothes and housewares that had been sitting in the corner of our bedroom for the last month. Since Pete was headed half-way to where I was, I made him carry a bag to the subway. I left him at Government Center and headed over to Goodwill.

After schlepping all the way to Cambridge with overstuffed bags of stuff, I sucessfully dropped off both bags. So, lighter and hands-free, decided to do a little shopping before I met back up with Pete. There's a Payless Shoe Source down the street. I sometimes go there to find cheap slides to wear when picking up dog poop from the yard and running down the street to get a paper. Last year, I found the PERFECT pair there. Unfortunately, I ruined them when I accidentally stepped in a puddle. They were never the same and I had to throw them away. I loved those shoes. This year, with no luck, I had checked several times to see if there was anything close. But today was different. Today, I had donated to charity! Payless had a lone pair of the EXACT shoes from last year in my size. For $12.

Next Saturday, I'm gonna donate that last bag of clothing. Then I'll check in at the apple store to see if the iPods have been clearanced to $59....

Lizard. It's What's for Dinner.
Topic: Daily Posts
Him: Look. (pointing to the building along the sidewalk) "Retail/Restaurant" space for lease.

Me: (looking at the window and seeing "Salamander" in a modern, sleek font, painted on the windows) What are we going to open, there?

Him: A restaurant...named "Salamander".....where that's all we serve.

Me: That's disgusting.

Him: That's why it's closed, now.

How Fitting to Be Thinking of FORGIVENESS and all at EASTER.....
Topic: Philosophy & Faith
While I'm highly irreverent and distasteful a majority of the time, I also take faith and religion very seriously. So when issues weigh heavy on my heart, it's time to sit down and think them out.

Some years ago, I heard it said, "All disappointment stems from FAILED EXPECTATIONS". How true. In all my life, I have never experienced disappointment that can't be linked back to an expectation. Many expectations are fair. It's ok to have expectations of our spouses, friends, work, home, government, community, etc. But some expectations, when not met, become so encompassing, that we put aside our thankful heart for all of the expectations in our lives that ARE met just to focus on one that wasn't - especially when it comes to the people we care about most. We feel so hurt that we ignore love, compassion and forgiveness to focus on how we have been wronged.

So, as I enter the Easter weekend, with the reminder of Christ's perfect, self-less love for us, I hope to have forgiveness, compassion, and love of those for whom I have expectations. I also hope for forgiveness, compassion and love from those who have expectations of me. And, maybe I can lower my rediculous expectations that I place on others, and I can raise the ones I should have of myself.

My Scientific Journal
I pretty much have 3 places where I record my life: my scrapbook which contains 99% photos (of photo-worthy events), this blog (which mostly only my family reads and never comments), and my favorite - MY JOURNAL.

For years, I have kept a journal in small, dollar-store black & white composition notebooks. I love this because it's private. I can write about the complexities of relationships, describing events and feelings that - while unflattering or just plain mean - are real and true to me. My journal is my favorite place to write because it is just for me. It's instant therapy.

Unfortunately, I've long been dissatisfied with the small, dollar-store, black & while composition notebooks, but haven't done anything about it. They don't lay flat. There isn't enough room to write a complete sentence on one line. It's certainly not ideal for my favorite thing - taping in snippets of paper. So, I thought about the altered book thing. I thought about an artists pad, a spiral notebook, etc. None of those seemed to be ideal. Then it hit me.

As a scientist, every day, I go to work and meticulously record everything I do in.....A LAB NOTEBOOK. They're oversized, archival safe, charming with their grid-lines and signature space. They lay flat and they're MADE for taping in print-outs, gel photos, charts and graphs, and other scientific stuff. There are so many snippets of paper that I save for my journal, but they just bulk it up and make it messy. I save fortunes from fortune cookies, newspaper comics that I find relevant to experiences I have, funny horoscopes (even though I don't beleive in them), hair-dos I'd love to have, scribblings on paper, wine labels from evenings of grilling out with Pete. A lab notebook would be perfect for recording all of this. Plus I'm a SCIENTIST. I love all things scientific. (Maybe I can get some of that colored lab tape, too.)

So, I ordered my lab notebook yesterday. I've used many, many, many different kinds, but the 192 page lab notebook from Scientific Notebook Company is my favorite for two reasons: 1) they're designed to LAY FLAT 2) you can have them embossed to personalize them, which is SO COOL.

I can't wait to get my lab notebook journal. The world is my laboratory and I'm working on my PhD.

Kitchen Eucharist
After Pete and I skipped church yesterday, tonight after dinner he was scavenging for something sweet for desert and in all his irreverence held out a ritz cracker to me and said "body of Christ".