Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sitting in my grandparents' living room right now, having chopped **9** cups of celery in preparation for the best stuffing in the entire world. My grandmother's stuffing is legendary.... People start dreaming about it on the day after Thanksgiving and crave it all year. It makes chopping cups and cups of briny water chestnuts bearable.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Theme today- Plush

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This is my little brother, cuddling with his bears Toby Keith and Firebreath. (Yes, those are the names he gave them.)

I changed my mind

I do have the brain power to write something.

I spent the entire day today in my pajamas. I didn't have school, work, or anything responsible to do, so I vegged. In this case, vegging meant entering 336 books into my Library Thing account (that would be Rachel's fault.) It was nice to just relax and waste an entire day. I've been so very useful lately, and it was starting to catch up with me. ;o)

I'm getting ready to start on my final paper for the semester. It's for my 20th Century class, and I'm writing it on government-sponsored eugenics and social engineering. As I'm sure you can guess, it's going to be a very uplifting paper...almost as uplifting as the one I wrote last year on physician-assisted suicide. I honestly don't know what makes me choose such dreadful topics. Maybe I should have a talk with my psychology professor.....

My history class has been really interesting lately, mostly because our discussions keep going off topic, so that when we're supposed to be discussing communist China, we're actually having a philosophical discussion on human rights, which morphs into isolationism v. internationalism, which somehow turns into a discussion of why we hate Wal-Mart (and not for the usual PC reasons.) Somehow, with all of that going on, we still manage to learn about Communist China. And, on one in the class, including the professor, tries to argue in favor of Communism or Socialism

Of course, there are some of the usual flakey people involved in the discussions...the sort who try to tell the class that everyone in America hates the US military, and that all good Americans should move to Australia. Apparently Canada is no longer an option... something about Canadians being too American.

My American history class is quite different. For the two weeks we've had the pleasure of hearing the professor rhapsodize over Johnson's Great Society and whine about the evil Vietnam veterans and all the problems they caused for us. We're talking about Nixon on Tuesday, which should be... interesting.

Because my mother wants me to post...

...and I'm lacking the brain power to actually write something:

In One Word-

1. Yourself: hungry
2. Your spouse: hah!
3. Your hair: up
4. Your mother: dancing
5. Your father: bald (good thing he doesn't read this...)
6. Your favorite item: books!
7. Your dream last night: weird
8. Your favorite drink: water
9. Your dream car: convertible
10. The room you are in: bedroom
11. Your ex: hah!
12. Your fear: failure
13. What you want to be in 10 years? rich.....
14. Who you hung out with last night? my mother
15. What you’re not? energetic
16. Muffins: poppyseed
17. One of your wish list items: horse
18. Time: flying
19. The last thing you did: LibraryThing
20. What you are wearing: pjs
21. Your favorite weather: sunny
22. Your favorite book: Pride and Prejudice (so I can't answer that one in one word...)
23. The last thing you ate: cereal
24. Your life: busy
25. Your mood: cranky
26. Your best friend: my mother (aww)
27. What are you thinking about right now? dinner
28. Your car: hah!
29. What are you doing at the moment? breathing
30. Your summer: short
31. Your relationship status: fine
32. What is on your TV? : movie
33. What is the weather like? cold
34. When is the last time you laughed? just now

New Blog

One of my very favorite people now has a blog, and I am CERTAIN that it will be very interesting when he gets around to posting on it.

Patrick's Gallimaufry is the blog, and if you couldn't guess, it is my weird and wonderful little brother.

This is what your taxes pay for

I am now officially a government employee.

Please, no one disown me.

I started today at my job as a shelver in the genealogy department of our library. I'll be working 10 hours a week, and after my first 5 hour shift, I'm exhausted. My legs and arms are sooo very tired, but they feel good. A few weeks doing this and I'll be in good shape!

So, I may also be the slowest shelver in the history of libraries, taking care of about 175 books in 4 hours. The aim is 100 books an hour. I'll get there...someday...maybe... ;o)

My coworkers seem very friendly and gave me lots of advice and help today.

Oh, and I have a locker. I've never had a locker before....

If you can't tell, I'm tired AND excited, which leads to semi-incoherent writing. Good thing I don't have any papers to write tonight.

When books collide...

This evening, as we were sitting in the family room relaxing, my mother discovered an interesting connection between one of our favorite books and our favorite author.

The book is Katherine, by Anya Seton. It is about Katherine Swynford, the third wife of John of Gaunt and 5th great-grandmother of Henry VIII. One of the lovely things about our copy of this book is that there is a beautiful family tree inside the front cover, showing John's family (Edward III, his brother Richard II, etc) andalso Katherine's.

While perusing this family tree, my mother noticed that Lionel of Antwerp, brother of John and Richard, married an Elizabeth de Burgh. Lemme think. Where have I seen that name before? Hmm.... A little down the line, Katherine's son Thomas, by her first husband (Hugh) married a Miss Margaret Darcy.

And, hey! Katherine's daughter Joan Beaufort married a Sir Robert Ferrers.

As though I didn't have a hard enough time telling my real historical characters from my fictional ones, now Jane Austen names are popping up in real, historical families. :o)

Photo Hunt- Dreaming

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I'm posting this is conjunction with my mother's post on the same topic. We both dream of being on the beach on Siesta Key, my favorite place in the entire world. This is a picture of my brothers and me from the last time our family was down there, and as you can tell from the date on the photo, it has been entirely too long!

Planning....

The semester is about half-way over, and 2007 schedules are floating around. This is always the most exciting part of the semester for me, but also the hardest- I just want my current classes to be over with!
Over the weekend I sat down with my schedule book and my mother (both indispensible) and figured out which classes I want to take in the spring. I'll be taking second semester-second year German for sure, Weather and Climate (clouds! storms!), a lovely "Western World Masterpieces" lit. class, Ottoman history, and 20th century British poetry. And THEN....the best part of all.... GER320 "Berlin and Beyond," involving a 10-day trip through Germany over Spring Break! I'm so excited!

I've almost decided to try for an English minor, and depending on how the classes fall, a double History/English major. The classes just look sooooo yummy. I'm just crushed that the Elizabethan Poetry class conflicts with the classes I need next semester....But maybe next year.

Or maybe I'll just stay in school for a really long time.....

Photo Hunt

Today's theme: Sleeping

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Another picture of my killer Callie-Cat. This time, she has shoved all my music boxes out of the way, and is sleeping on a shelf....safe from the other cat. (Incidently, she had just come out of the rain and was soaking wet. Just what I wanted. ;o) )

Next Week's theme is "Lost."

Next week:

As anyone who knows me well can tell you, I am not a "math person." I don't enjoy math, which I find boring and, in many cases, irrelevant to my life. As such, I was not looking forward to taking a math class this semester, even one as nonthreatening-sounding as "Math for the Liberal Arts Student."

To my very great surprise, I have been getting perfect grades in this class. In fact, I've been getting perfect grades without even needing to study all that much. This has been freaking me out more than a little bit.

Today, at the end of class, the professor suggested that the class share phone numbers, so that we can call each other to conferr on our homework assignments. She finshed by saying, "...and this does NOT mean that you can all take down Bethany's number and call her to find out the correct answers...."

:cue Twilight Zone music:

I am the smarty-pants in math class? Did someone swap my brain? Has my psychology professor been doing covert experiments on me? Anyway, it is WEIRD.

Saturday Photo Hunt

Today's theme is "comfy."

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This is my darling little brother getting comfy in his jammies (and hamming for the camera!)

Next week's theme is "sleeping."

Fridays are the Best Days

School is over for the week(end), and even if I have some studying to do, it is much more comfortable to do that studying on our very comfy couch, rather than in some squished chair of questionable cleanliness over on campus!

This afternoon we took a drive down south of Fort Wayne. We stopped at an apple orchard in Ossian and picked up a bushel or so of apples. Half of them were from the seconds heap and are destined to become applesauce. The other half are for eating, and I can't wait to try them.

From Ossian, we took off through the country toward Decatur. It was beautiful day, and the soybean fields are at their most lovely- all golden and glowing. Since we weren't really in a hurry, I had my mother stop so that I could get out and take some pictures. I loved getting to walk around out there, even if it was only for 50 ft or so. The grass was full of grasshoppers, so that every time I took a step they would hop all over my feet. There were also lots of great wooly caterpillars along the sides of the road, and their "fur" was looking pretty thick....Cold winter coming? I hope not.

This spot in particular caught my attention. The fields were such a bright gold, and the grass is still so green. And the clouds! I love clouds.

We stopped to visit with my great-grandma for a little bit before we came home. She was very happy to have visitors, and chatted a great deal. Grandpa even woke up for the entirely of our visit, and was able to recognize us. My mother is planning another visit, after we get Patrick back from our grandparents, who kidnapped him Wednesday.

Photo Hunt

So, I'm a little late getting my picture up today, but I've been out of the house all morning.

Today's theme is "Eyes"

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This is, of course, the Mighty Huntress Callie-Cat. She doesn't like this picture very much- she thinks it makes her nose look big.

Indolence in Blogging

I really really haven't felt like writing anything recently, even though there were a multitude of topics I could have covered. Perhaps it is because writing has once again become something I do for school- something I try to get through as quickly as possible. If so, that phase shouldn't last long. Within a few weeks I should feel like writing again, if only to complain. :o)

Ok: my current excuse for not writing anything of substance is that I am dead tired. I woke up at 6:00 this morning, and spent the entire day on campus. I held my eyes open through 6 straight hours of class, and tried desperately not to fall asleep while studying for a couple hours. I thenNow

Now I have four days to relax, write a history paper, study for a few tests.....

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Today's theme... "Looking Up"

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One of my personal favorites (of which I seem to have quite a few), I took this one in April. The bulbs were all blooming at Foster Park, which always makes for good pictures. This one I took from the middle of a tulip bed, looking up.

Pride and Prejudice Humor

Teeheehee.

It's really painfully stupid, but sometimes stupid is just funny.

Miss Bingley: "You write uncommonly fast Mr. Darcy."
Mr. Darcy: "Of course I do, I have a light saber! Get out of my way.

Saturday Photo

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These giraffes, at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, are enjoying a late-morning snack. And everyone else is enjoying watching them!

And I thought I was unique...

While poking around and spying on everyone who visits my blog, I discovered that my blog had come up on a Google search for "bethany beppy." That in itself wasn't surprising.... What WAS surprising was that I came up 6th. Apparently, I am not the only Bethany nicknamed "Beppy."

Bummer.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

The photo theme for this Saturday is "On the Road."

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This is my favorite "road" picture. I took it at the top of a mountain, just outside Akaroa, NZ. To the right and left are sheep pastures, and that stretch of blue out there is the Pacific. This photo brings back memories of total silence and a very peaceful stillness. It was the first time I can remember where there were no man-made noises to be heard, just the wind and the rustling grass.

Next Saturday: Food (hahaha!)