Quote of the Day, from Amanda: "A little something I learned in 'health' class: In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband's lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired."

Weird. Thanks to Amanda for making me smile. Today was okay...Good: I had my last day of real anatomy lab, micro lab lasted 45 minutes, I turned in my case study take-home exam, the weather was nice and no longer rainy. Bad: Wednesday is a lab test over the head, which has 12,000 bones or so that we have to learn; I got my anatomy lab test back, and while I didn't bomb or anything, and even though I said I'd be happy with a B, I lied. Now I can miss only 10.5 points out of my case study + head test + lecture final and still get an A. Possible, which is good, but probable, unlikely. Frustrating. I was closer to the highest grade than the average score, though, and that helps make me feel a little better. Too bad she doesn't curve.

This week's events of note:
Monday - anatomy case study take-home exam due
Wednesday - anatomy lab exam over the head, micro lab exam
Thursday - genetics test
Friday - biochem test, biochem assignment due

*sob*

On a positive note, this weekend was fun. Emily, Matt, and I played a couple games of 21 (basketball)on Friday afternoon, and then went to the baseball game. It was awesome - we beat Missouri 1-0, the weather was wet but nice, Patton got another home run, and Infante made an amazing catch. And the game only lasted 2 hours! On Saturday I had to work on my case study, but in the evening we went to eat at GattiTown, attended the women's tennis match and 3 innings of the baseball game, then came home to have some birthday ice cream and watch the Mavs and Cops. I think Matt had a good birthday weekend - the Aggies won, Matt got his baseball jersey for 36 12th Man Rewards Card stamps, the Mavericks won, the NFL Draft was exciting, and his dad told him that for Matt's birthday present he's financing a road trip for Matt and Luke to see Phish in Indiana this June.

I never knew that the theme song of "Babe" was really Symphony #3 in C min, Op 78 "Organ" - II. Maestoso by Camille Saint-Saens. I was at my computer working, rocking the classical music, when all of a sudden my ears pricked up. Babe! You learn something new every day. Well, back to the never-ending anatomy case study take-home exam. :(

Happy Birthday Matt!

Today was good. In fact, I imagine the next few days will be good if I don't think about the end of next week. I did an important errand today - I went to the Honors Office and told them to a) apply my scholarship payment (my last) to my summer school fees, and b) got a letter from Dr Hogg, my advisor, that says I only need to take 7 hours this summer to graduate. I needed this so that the school would give me all my money, not just half, since I won't be taking a full load this summer. Now if the dean would just make the class substitutions I need (change my 2 hour p-chem lab into the 1-credit-hour class I need, and stick the extra hour onto my micro class to make it equal the 5-credit-hour course I was supposed to take), I can feel like I might actually graduate in August.

Today was Aggie Ring Delivery Day. Congratulations to all (especially Amanda and Andi) who got their rings! Whoop!

It is supposed to rain all weekend. Matt's not too happy about that, since his birthday plans revolved around going to baseball games and playing some basketball. At least he'll still be able to watch the NFL Draft no matter if it is raining or not.

A sad day...I was up this morning taking pictures of our new crepe myrtles (yes, we have new crepe myrtles - one between the driveway and the duplex on both sides...they will have pink flowers). And I decided to check on the baby birds living in Lori's plant. So I peer in, all expectant, and all there was in the nest was one dead bird. :( I guess the bright side is that the other two must have grown up and flown off. But I was very sad. It ruined my whole morning.

And now I need to do something before we have decomposing bird smell by our front door.

The anatomy lab final is over! Huzzah! Now you'd think that after the final, we'd be done with lab. But no, the next two lab periods we're looking at the head and have a test over it on the 28th. Grr... I ended up studying in the lab last Friday and yesterday, and just reading over things on Saturday. I worked with a girl in my biochemistry class on Sunday, looking at her dog, Flappy. It was good to get some more experience looking at other dogs, because up to that point, I'd only really studied with Sparky and Lucky. The lab final itself went pretty well. Only a few questions (out of 68) had me completely stumped. But I honestly have no idea how I did...anything in the A-C range wouldn't totally surprise me. We'll see. Sparky was the demo dog for two of the questions, and his forearm was in the small lab with another. I'll kick myself if I miss a question that was tagged on him. The questions ranged anywhere from "identify this structure" (muscle, artery, nerve, vein, part of an organ, bony prominence, ligament etc) to "what deficits would be shown if this nerve were damaged at this location" to "what is the function of this." It was pretty fair, overall. And I am SO glad to have it done, no matter what grade I end up getting.

Now I only have 5 more tests to get through before finals start (doesn't that sound wrong?). There's my anatomy case study exam due next Monday. Then comes the real fun: anatomy head test and microbiology lab test April 28, genetics test April 29, biochemistry test April 30. Ugh.

I finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the second time on Sunday. After that, I went out at bought The Hobbit (read it once, but didn't own it) and The Silmarillion to add to my collection. I also went ahead and got The Left Hand of Darkness since someone seems to have stolen the library's copy. I'm reading the two LOTR books right now (The Hobbit goes in the backpack to school, The Silmarillion is for nighttime reading). I am also chugging through the LOTR appendices. So it's good times for the happy reader. :)

Okay, now I feel compelled to explain why I think erectile tissue is neat. I didn't really give my reasons before when I stated that it was cool. So here goes. I apologize for making people uncomfortable - I know that my lab partners Kyle and David were very uneasy when we had to cross-section the penis and take the testicle out of the scrotum. But I must say, I've been talking about penises for the last two weeks in anatomy lab, and the compulsion to giggle when I say or type anything male-reproductive-system-related is pretty much gone by now. So, I give you, "Why Penises are Interesting": First, the canine (and lots of other animals) penis has a bone in it, the os penis. That right there is pretty neat. It does, however, make the penis a lot less flexible. Secondly, erectile tissue, specifically corpus cavernosum and corpus spongiosum, is cool-looking [good diagram here]. It is very porous and can fill with lots of blood. When the glans of the penis expands and that combines with the female system also filling with blood, that results in dogs being "tied together" and they can't physically separate themselves no matter whether you spray them with water or how much you want them to get off your lawn so the neighbors won't stare. Finally, dogs (and others, not humans) have a little muscle called the retractor penis muscle to pull the penis back into the prepuce (what you see of the penis normally from the outside, the sheath). It is a neat little muscle branching off the abdominal obliques that keeps the penis from going too far out and helps it come back in. Some drugs you can give livestock can permanently disable this muscle, which is not a good thing at all. Okay, I think that's enough reasons why penises are interesting (female reproductive anatomy is much more bland). Maybe I should take a repro class...(well, I'm sure I'll get lots of it in vet school).

I'm in a good mood. And this weekend is Matt's 22nd birthday! Yay! Well, Trauma: Life in the ER is about to come on TLC...

Work on Thursday was exciting. The chemicals that we desperately needed to get in so we could be ready for next Monday's lab were being delivered via overnight shipping. They were supposed to come in by Thursday afternoon but they hadn't. One box had been sent to the Mechanical Engineering department across campus, and the other box was unaccounted for. As time passed, we were made aware of the situation: the shipper had damaged the bottles of cyanuric chloride in box #2. And so they had a "hazardous waste spill" on their hands and had to call in people from the state to deal with it. Oops.

I am now in the midst of furious anatomy studying. I got all my other school work taken care of during the week, so my only focus this weekend is anatomy. I skipped biochemistry yesterday so that I could go straight from work to the anatomy lab yesterday. Emily came and saw what progress we'd made with Sparky since she'd last seen him, and she also got to look at Lucky, the female beagle. If I had to guess what Emily was most impressed with, I'd say it was the bright green gall bladder. But maybe it was the cross-sectioned penis...who knows? [you have no idea how cool erectile tissue is]

Speaking of penises, we anatomy students have got to be more careful about talking about anatomy, particularly outside of class. "Yeah, ____ said he'd show me his penis after class" and "can I look at your testicles?" My mistake yesterday was telling Emily and David that I'd "really like to do a goat." What I meant was based on the fact that some vet students had their goats out to study in the lab and that I'd like to dissect one. It didn't come out that way, though. So anyway, I studied in the lab with David (and Emily) for a few hours yesterday. I don't think I'll go back in today, but I probably will tomorrow. I have no idea how this lab final is going to go. At least I'm not taking the MCAT today like half the people in my class.

Microbiology lab was super-cool today. We typed our blood! Since I had such a bad experience with the needle hurting my finger when I got it pricked (assaulted) two weeks ago for donating, I decided to instead scrape a knuckle with the needle until it bled. Much better. We had little glass dishes with three depressions, labeled "A," "B," and "Rh." We put a drop of blood in each depression, and then added Anti-A (antibodies from rabbits) to A, Anti-B to B, and Anti-D to Rh. My A and Rh blood drops coagulated, so I am A+ (which is apparently the second largest blood type group, after O+). Jon was B- (his B drop coagulated), which is pretty rare (2% worldwide, even less in the US). But then, he might have messed up the test. Of course, me being A+ wasn't a huge shock, since Mom is A+ and they'd guessed I was too. Les, do you know what type you are?

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty neat lab. I was impressed that even the wimpy girls pricked themselves and bled for science. We'll find out the class distribution of blood types on Monday.

Speaking of Monday, that's my anatomy lab final. I'm a bit freaked out about it now, but it is still far enough away that my heart rate hasn't become constantly elevated yet. I hope I do okay. Over 80% of it is strictly identification, but that's still a heck of a lot of material to cover, and it is 67 questions (and 90 minutes) long. Yikes. Wish me luck.

This has been a really nice three-day weekend. Thursday night I was able to watch TV with Matt without feeling guilty about not doing homework. We were sad that Amy got voted off the Apprentice, but we saw it coming the whole episode. And we like Bill (and think he has a much better team to pull off a victory next week). After ER, Matt and I went over to Jeff's apartment to wish Amanda a happy 21st birthday and give her birthday presents to her. That was fun, and we saw the group off to Northgate for more celebration (Matt and I decided to not go...Northgate is a little advanced for us). On Friday, I got to sleep in, and then I had a really nice three hour study session in the anatomy lab. Rachel, a fellow group member, met me there and we reviewed the second half of all the anatomy we've learned this semester in preparation for the lab final a week from Monday. It was really good studying, and that alone made it worth me staying here in College Station this weekend. After I got back from the lab, Matt and I played basketball (a rematch from last weekend), and I beat him 20-16. Whoop! A little Sonic, and the day was complete. Yesterday I did some homework. In the afternoon, a huge and ominous line of storms were coming our way, and they were breaking in on TV, Weatherbug was chirping, and hail was being reported. So, I forced Matt to drive with me to take refuge in the west campus parking garage to protect my semi-new car and his new car. It didn't end up hailing here, but there was baseball-sized hail in Cameron and NE Texas. I personally don't regret playing it safe. I just sat in my CR-V and read the Lord of the Rings. :) Then we went to Gatti Town and rented Brother Bear at Blockbuster (isn't Matt nice?). Today Matt and I went to the College Station UU Fellowship for their semi-Easter service. After I study the contents of the bone box this afternoon, I'm going to be cooking a pot roast for dinner tonight. Let's hope it turns out okay - I got my cooking instructions from Mom in the parking garage yesterday. :)

Something cool: the birds that have been living in Lori's hanging plant by the front door had their chicks hatch the other day. Three little fluff balls with beaks. I walked by once when they were all stretched out and chirping for food. But they're usually just hunkered down in the nest. I'm glad something good came of us sacrificing the plant's well-being as well as getting freaked out by the bird flying out of there every time we enter or leave the duplex.

Happy 21st Birthday Amanda!

I'm excited about celebrating with you at Northgate :)

Work yesterday was exciting. First, I burned out all my nose hair making acid solutions. I had to measure out and carry a 2000 mL graduated cylinder full of concentrated hydrochloric acid over to the huge Nalgene container and mix it up with water...wearing goggles, a face shield, lab coat, an apron, and rubber gloves. The graduated cylinder was giving off concentrated acid fumes that were definitely not healthy. And then I accidentally murdered a ton of brain cells pouring out Pyridine. It smells really bad too. I really should get more than minimum wage for this job.

Microbiology test tomorrow - then I'll be done until Monday. Yay for three-day weekends!

Nothing like impending tests to make me post on my blog. Not much to report, really. I'm still debating on an hourly basis with myself on whether to go home (mini-ranch) or not for Easter. My reasons for going: getting to see Mom, Dad, Carolyn, and Murphy; seeing the ranch in the springtime; I won't get to go home again until the end of May; getting away from College Station. Reasons to stay here: anatomy lab final in 12 days; biochemistry assignment that I must make a 100 on; a comfortable bed; no driving; Amanda's 21 birthday celebration Thursday night; Splinter Cell. Right now I'm leaning towards going to the mini-ranch on Friday afternoon after spending a few hours in the anatomy lab. But that could change any minute.

Driving home from work this evening (around 6:45) was lovely - the sun was behind me, lighting up all the new growth and wildflowers and trees along 2818 in a very springtimey way. Spring is great. I'm so glad I don't have allergies.

I do not like "springing forward." *YAWN*

On the upside, the weather has been really nice recently. Yesterday Matt and I bought a basketball and played some in a nearby park. We're also continuing to work on getting our 36 stamps [to get an A&M baseball jersey] by going to Aggie athletic events. Matt has 32, I have 29, and Emily just hit 24 to get her A&M visor. Yesterday we went to men's tennis. Turns out there is one sport that Baylor is actually good at - we lost 5-2. But we didn't stay the whole time; tennis is long.

I've also been playing some more Splinter Cell. I like it a lot. Also, Microsoft lowered the Xbox price to $149, and that's the price I've been waiting for...I just can't buy one until I get through this month (at least) because of school and whatnot. Plus, I have plenty of games still unfinished (Splinter Cell, Kingdom Hearts) or waiting to be replayed (Final Fantasy X, LoZ: Majora's Mask, Metroid Prime) or unpurchased (Final Fantasy X-2, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes). And who knows - some have talked about Microsoft lowering the price more or bundling the Xbox with a game at $149 after E3. But I bet I have an Xbox by the end of the summer. :)