i think i'll quit now

My USB drive corrupted my critical theory research paper. Hours of writing gone.

I'm a Gmail Girl!

I moved. My mailing address didn't change, but my cyber address certainly did. I was fed up with hotmail, its tendencies to delete my emails, its inability to sign me in for hours on end, and its disgusting banner ads. I converted.

I completed most of my move today when I was able to sign into my hotmail account, thus being able to start the transfer. Granted, movie emails isn' t nearly as crazy as actually moving, but tranferring to a different email account does take some time. I had to export all my contacts (which was actually really nice, because that I way I didn't have to manually reenter all my email contacts), forward the messages from my hotmail account that I want, and change emails on several external sites.

After just one day, I love gmail. I love that I can customize my template. I love that I can label all my messages and color code those messages. I love that it keeps all my messages that are replies (you know the "re: re: re: re:" messages) as one message instead of as a million. I love that I can just click on a different tab and get to my GoogleReader. I love that gmail accomodates my organizational compulsions. I love that gmail doesn't arbitrarily delete emails. I love the lack of ads.

The one perhaps frustrating aspect of my move was having to transfer my blog to my new blogger account; blogger wouldn't let me just change the email on my existing profile, so I had to completely transfer everything over to this new profile. (**For those of you whose blogs I read who have private blogs, could you send me an email to my new address? It's the same user name but just at gmail. Thanks :) ) This was a little tricky, but I succeeded. The one thing that makes me sad about a new blogger profile is that the count for how many times my profile has been looked at is now in the single digits. I know it doesn't matter, but seeing that my profile had been clicked on over 600 times was a nice ego boost.

I'm a full-fledged Gmail Girl!!

absurd

Last week my email server deleted all my emails from the previous week. All of them. And now it won't let me sign in. For the better part of two days I have been completely unable to access my messages. Ridiculous. Absurd.

As soon as I am able to sign in to my account, I will forward all needed emails to my new address. Gmail here I come.

dedicated to Brooke: my newish computer

So, I was talking to Brooke yesterday, and she whined that I haven't been posting lately. Brooke, this post is dedicated to you.

As mentioned in previous posts, my computer was so on the fritz. It was ridiculous. Once nothing started showing up on the screen, I took it in to the BYU computer shop, and they supposedly fixed it. It took almost four weeks for me to get my computer back, they sent it back, and then two or three days later, it started doing the same thing again. Dad was able to hook up my lame-o computer to our huge old monitor. It was pretty ridiculous.

Feeling at a loss for what to do about my computer, I was ready to give up. Mom was talking to her boss about my computer woes, and then he said that he just happened to have an extra computer lying around. It was a pretty great answer to prayer, for sure. It has all the new Microsoft programs, and he is letting me work out a payment plan for it. I'm so glad that this came through--I was really upset and frustrated. Hopefully, this one won't completely spazz out.

So, Brooke, that was a post just for you. It's nothing exciting--just the mundane happenings of my summer life.

summer groove

I'm finally home! Dad, John, and Neighbor Nick drove out on Thursday and we moved all my stuff into my new apartment for next year (my roommate next year is staying for summer and living in the apartment we'll be in for the fall). Then we went out to Cafe Rio for dinner (none of the boys had ever had it and they were all pleasantly surprised by the tastiness and the quantity of food), then we went to see "21" in the dollar theater--hooray for Movies 8! The next morning we picked up Josh Elliott (a kid from my home stake) and gave him a ride back. It was a pretty fun car ride and I listened to my iPod, talked with the boys, ate Wendy's chicken nuggets and a Frosty, slept, and enjoyed the pretty ride back to CO. I put off unpacking until yesterday, which works just fine because Emily is gone for the whole week beach camping in CA. I still have some work to do on the unpacking front, but at least of my stuff is unpacked.

I'm starting my job hunt right away. A couple months ago, one of my friends at WaMu said they probably would be able to hire me for the 10 weeks I'm home, but when I went in to the bank yesterday to inquire about that, they said that right now the company is only hiring internally . . . blast. I wasn't completely "banking" on that though, so I do have a couple other options. I applied at Borders as a fall back--I'd rather not work retail, but if I must, books are the way to go, I think. I'm applying at the temp agency I worked through last summer, and so hopefully that will work out soon. Also, I'm still writing articles, and another editing opportunity will hopefully come through. So, with a regular job and a few editing/writing things here and there, I should be able to save all I need to this summer.

I have a few pictures to post, but I don't currently have a cable to connect my camera to the computer because it was in a package that got lost in the mail last September. I was using my printer to transfer all my pictures from my memory card, but I left my printer in Provo. I ordered another cord from Amazon, so I'm hoping that will come in soon.

We have a dog!!!! Jessie gave us Moosey, and Moosey came in yesterday. She is SO cute, and we all love her to death. I have some pictures of her, but as I mentioned earlier, I can't transfer pictures yet. Good grief. (Oh yeah, I still don't have my laptop--it's been over 2 weeks.) Anyway, Moosey is the hit of the Wood household right now, and we love having her! Well, I'm off to polish up a resume, iron some clothes, write some articles, and enjoy the dog.

diagnostic fees and the countdown

I would have blogged sooner than now, but haven't for a couple of reasons: 1) there hasn't been too much to blog about in the first place, and 2) my computer broke. Yes, that's right. My stupid, spastic, self-starting, constantly overheating computer is in the shop. A few weeks ago, one of the hinges broke off, but it didn't seem like a big deal. On Sunday, the screen started going funny--it had colored stripes, and if I jiggled my computer the right way, the screen would come back on. Good grief. So, Monday morning I took my computer up to the computer shop in the bookstore. For a mere $65 dianostic fee, they looked at my computer, and decided that my lame-o computer needs a new LCD cable and new hinges, totaling just shy of $200. At least the $65 fee didn't go to waste.

And I am 8 days, 1 Shakespeare class, 2 editing classes, 2 tests, one portfolio, one research worksheet, 2 finals, and a whole heck of a lot of packing away from going home. Dad will be driving out on Thursday and he'll be driving back with me on Friday. I'm so close. So close.

Oh yeah--the computer parts will be come in between five and ten days. Because it's not like I have finals or anything.

it's back!

My internet is up and running!!!
April Fool's.

stupid internet

So, the internet has been out again since last Thursday. This is ridiculous. I have much to post from my weekend, but can't because all my pictures are on my laptop. Perhaps I'll load some picutres onto my USB drive and post from campus (like I'm doing now). This whole no-internet thing is getting really old.

quintessential first day of december

As all of you who live here know, yesterday this is what it looked like outside (Katelyn woke me up excitedly to show me!):

and this was at 11 in the morning--sa-weet!!!

Can you think of a more perfect way to kick off December?! I submit that there is not. So anyway, Katelyn and I woke up around nine or so, got ready, and ate breakfast while watching the most recent episode of "Chuck" online (Emily and Dad converted me to that show--it's pretty hilarious). Then we got to make an exciting trip to the storage unit to pick up Katelyn's Christmas tree we decided to use in our apartment. She also had to pick up some more things from the storage unit and much to our benefit, almost all of it was in one bin that was sitting right on top.

We ran to the bank and then picked up Katelyn's brother so he could have the car. We then made mac and cheese for lunch and continued to watch the "Chuck" episode we didn't finish (and also did not go to the stake service project up in SLC--who wants to go to Salt Lake when you can stay in your cozy apartment eating KRAFT mac and cheese and watching TV shows online??) The best part about the snow of the day was that it continued to snow all day and it was cloudy and like Michelle said in her post yesterday, a true Winter Wonderland!

I was actually productive a little bit yesterday: I worked on some articles and read for British Lit, however I gave up on the articles (that were actually due, but I just emailed the guy explaining my problem) because my computer was being unusually retarded yesterday. I've had this problem with the "i" key and it comes off and it's really hard to put back on and my efforts yesterday were fruitless. Oh yeah, and my computer kept restarting itself all afternoon--good grief. I think next summer when I have a bit of money it will be time to find a new one that *hopefully* won't give me so much trouble. [*The "i" key still isn't working too well, so this whole typing thing isn't coming so easy . . . but I just had to post about yesterday because I knew if I didn't do it now I wouldn't do it and I'd end up only having 3 posts for December like in November . . . sorry . . . rambling . . . ]

So after some school and work things, then we decorated our apartment!!

Our super cute little Christmas tree!

Me decorating the Christmas tree--I love the snow in the background!

Julie putting up some colored lights she got from her grandma (they kind of look like fiesta lights!)

More decorating endeavors--I'm glad I didn't fall off :)

Katelyn and I went out to dinner at Wendy's last night which was a fun excursion and then we went up to campus to pick up Katelyn's brother again and while we were waiting we had a bit too much fun with the camera . . .

What can we say? It was REALLY cold

I'm a super spy

I don't know what I can say about this one . . .

A cute one of Katelyn

A cute one of Katelyn and me . . . well it's cute of Katelyn. Not my favorite one of me

Oh wait--our day isn't over yet! We went back to the apartment and then pulled out the Easy Bake oven. That's right--the Easy Bake oven. We tried making some Easy Bake sugar cookies that were not so great . . . . We watched "The Family Stone" (which was better than I thought it would be) and "Tristan and Isolde" (which also was better than I thought it would be). Then we went to bed.

A perfect December day.