Hidden Valley

I met Jody over at the park this evening.  It was pretty nice out and our dogs haven't seen each other in a long time so they ran around like crazy.  Jasmine actually jumped out the window rather than wait for me to open her door.

Riley's usually the first one to start walking behind us, but as the dogs poop out they join the caravan.

Snoopy, of course, never gets tired.  If you look hard you can see her way up ahead.

Back at the Dodge we gave them some more water.  Riley jumped in and was ready to go home.

Jasmine was especially tired and didn't make it that far.

After a brief rest she played with Snoopy and Lucy some more but Riley stayed in the car.

By the way- I love living here.

I'll see your grad-student-insanity workload and raise you Jenny determination.

It must be a full moon because... it is.  Sorry, I've been reading Steve Martin's book Born Standing Up.  One of my favorite parts so far is his favorite joke from a vaudeville star's performance:

"One day he brought his trick violin to the store to share with this sixteen-year-old boy.  He flicked a hidden switch, and I watched as the violin changed into a colorful bouquet of feather-flowers.  Nice, but then he showed me his opening joke: He walked from behind the counter and stood on the floor of the magic shop, announcing, 'And now, the glove into dove trick!'  He threw a white magician's glove into the air.  It hit the floor and lay there.  He stared at it and then went on to the next trick."

And I can't stop giggling.

Steve Martin is a smarty-pants, which can be obnoxious at times, but he's a pretty funny guy.  I couldn't stand Shopgirl and refused to watch the movie.  It grossed me out that he cast himself opposite Claire Danes even if the story was about a May-December relationship.  It struck me as horribly self-indulgent. But I LOVED The Pleasure of My Company.  It is in my top 5 books and L.A. Story is in my top 5 movies.  But Jennyway, where the hell was I going with this?

Ah.  It must be a full moon because I just tackled a big project.  Two lingering projects, actually.  This class may require too much but I don't care- I am going to keep up with my non school-related reading and I will finish the leftover projects before the fall semester starts.  Only not right now.  I'm tired and I need to go blog.  But tomorrow!  Tomorrow I will resume accomplishing all sorts of impressive feats.  So there, class.  So there.

Here comes the Waahmbulance!

I finished my homework by 10 last night so I have time to blog this morning.  Actually, I should really be getting my stuff together and emptying the dishwasher but oh well.

Once again, 400A is complete insanity.  Just like the novel writing class, it is taught by a grad student with a warped sense of how much work is appropriate.  There is SO much to do that I'm already swamped.  Last night I cried.  I was also tired, crashing, and frustrated.  Chris and I were arguing and he was baffled.

"Isn't this only the third day of class?" he asked.

"Second," I warbled.

Now I can really see that working this fall will be a bad idea.  I'm also trying to remind myself that I will not feel as horribly overloaded as I do now.  Each day in this summer class represents a week of the regular semester.  We're back to talking only on the weekends, family.  And I'll try to make sure that I get my weekly crying jag out before I call.  Sheesh.

Here you go, Tracy.

Chris took the dogs out so I could sit here and do my homework.  He came in and said, "I have to kiss you."  I was slightly confused but he was already explaining:

He'd been talking to our neighbor outside while playing with Jasmine.  Johnny threw the tennis ball into the parking lot- off the grass- and Jasmine wouldn't go.

I trained her not to run into the street after a toy over three years ago.


My homework is not finished but

1) I was writing about how much I enjoy writing blogs

2) Just today Tracy was telling me about looking for a blog

3) I have been writing mental blogs

Today was the first day of "Fear, Risk, and Rhetorical Criticism."  Don't worry, I've already decided that come hell or high water, I cannot drop this class.  I will not destroy my last fall semester with financial aid woes.  Interestingly, the UNR goblins may have found another way to thwart me.  Apparently, the minimum enrollment for a class is eight.  We have five.  Our class may get canceled.  Are you rolling your eyes yet?  I am.

Yesterday we went for a hike.  I have pictures but they're on my phone and I'll have to send them to my email, download and save them somewhere I can find them, then post and comment on them here.  That could be an entertaining project at work tomorrow when I'm supposed to be reading about rhetoric.

"Rhetoric is defined as the human use of symbols to communicate.  This definition includes three primary dimensions: (1) humans as the creators of rhetoric; (2) symbols as the medium for rhetoric; and (3) communication as the purpose for rhetoric."

Yup, sounds like rhetoric to me.

Yeah, so we went for a hike in a park halfway up Mt. Rose.  Actually, I'm just assuming it's halfway up, like how far we made it up the trail.  The map said the trail was 2000' vertical, which I assumed was an exaggeration meant to keep the weenies at bay.  We staggered and rested our way up to what I thought was surely the top of the hill, but it was only slightly less vertical than the rest of the trail, and continued, vertically uphill.  We gave up and rested, drank some water, and started back down.  Immediately we saw an OLD LADY walking up the steepest part of the trail towards us.  "I can't speed up," she called.  Not that we'd want her to.  She made it up and came to say hi to the dogs.  She had to turn her hearing aid up to talk to us.

"Did you come from the pond?" she asked.

"We didn't make it that far."

"Yeah," she laughed.  "There's no downhill on this trail."

She strode past and we skittered down over the steep part.

"I wonder if it was a mistake to leave her alone," I said.

"I was thinking the same thing," said Chris.  "But it sounds like she's been here before."

"Yeah..."

We were quiet for a few seconds.

"Boy, she sure makes us look like a couple of weenies, huh?"