From the keyboard of a married woman

Lots of things have happened lately but I don't want this to turn into a long-winded post (mostly because I want to post before we leave for dinner with friends tonight).

Wedding: Pulled it off and it went terrific! There were glitches but we took them in stride. The weather was perfect. I do wish we had had more hours in the afternoon to really get into the letterboxing but that's the way it goes. I have absolutely no pictures yet; I didn't even take any photos with my own camera during any of the events, including the relaxing camping trip we did with some other people Saturday through Monday. So now it's back to "real life" - with new stuff to sort through, dirty clothes to wash, and rings on our fingers. But really, as expected, we were already practically married so actually having a wedding didn't change a whole lot. There is a sense of "things are easier" - not having to struggle with the inadequate names for each other, like "boyfriend." One word of advice I have for those planning weddings: Get a room with a hot tub. I'm not being dirty here; lying in the hot water is the *perfect* way to relax after the stress of The Big Day.

Job: It appears I don't actually have a job this fall semester. It's very vague and confusing. I plan to find out more when I'm in on Friday. More details as I learn them.

Hearing aids: Earlier last week I finally got my new hearing aids! I had had the same Phonak Powerzoom analog hearing aids for TEN YEARS. It is nothing short of a miracle that they lasted that long. They're still fine, but I wanted to be proactive and get new hearing aids *before* I couldn't hear with my old ones anymore.

I'm still adjusting to these new Phonak Naida S V UP digital ones (they're ALL digital now, or at least the ones that will work for me). Some things are much easier: they're water resistant (no need to dry my hair before putting them in), they don't have interference with my cellphone, and listening to people with any amount of background noise is soooo much easier. Being in the car is distracting; the hearing aids go back and forth between dimming the noises and picking up Colin's voice. I don't like it at all, it doesn't seem safe for when I'm driving, but I've found when I put the hearing aids in the one other mode that's on them (so far) it's much more consistent - this is kind of funny because the mode is meant for blocking out background noise but I find that the normal mode is much nicer in crowds. Also, I still struggle with how different things/voices sound and how loud or soft my own voice should be in situations. Ooo, and the new ones are this dark transparent blue!

Webcomics: While not technically a life update, I've discovered two webcomics lately that I've been going through. One is "Scandinavia and the World" and the other is "Girls with Slingshots." The webcomic above is from "Girls with Slingshots;" I'm finding a lot of the story lines seem to resonate with me right now. As for the other one, I'm only sad that I didn't discover it earlier because it is helping to satisfy my craving for connecting with my strange and mysterious Scandinavian heritage.

Google Plus: One more thing! I'm enjoying this new feature and I have high hopes for it. I would love to cancel my facebook account but for social reasons I can't (at least not yet - can everybody switch to Google Plus? please?). I haven't posted much yet on Google Plus, but I check it regularly. My main battle is when I try to decide whether to post something on Plus or Twitter. I'm holding onto both at least for now. As for a blogging alternative, I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of this blog at least in the foreseeable future, but I'm intrigued by the idea of using Google Plus for shorter, more frequent posts without being limited to 140 characters.

Also - three red tomatoes in our garden!

More on Columbus Day

I just read this. I try to refrain from posting many comics and lolcats on here, but this one is especially relevant for today. Also, perhaps you'll find you like Bug Comics!

This is pretty much how my mornings go

Got an email from Dad, saying that the site I found that had a picture of my grandpa with his dad and brothers was "neat." Also got an email from a relative I just found last night who invited me to be part of the family tree on geni.com. Yay! Then I got an email from Dad with some documents I have to print off and sign and got side-tracked from genealogy ...

Looked up suggestions on where the best place to use printing services would be and noticed that none of the stores list prices for individual prints. Found some other people complaining about this but no real suggestions except it usually starts at 10 cents a page for black and white. Then I decided I would just go to the library this afternoon and print what I needed for 10 cents a page. This is my default for printing from now on as long as it proves a good experience. I'll figure out what to do with color and other types of printing when it comes to that. Meanwhile, any of you have suggestions?

Following the "keeping cents of things" (just made that up for "saving money"), I checked to see what deals I could get on non-instant oatmeal which we need more of. Colin made an awesome multi-grain bread in the goodwill bread machine which uses oats this weekend and we definitely plan on making more. I found a coupon for 1 dollar off each 42 oz quaker oats I buy - and it's currently 1.39 each when I get five a jewel osco. So .39 cents each is really cool. Yippee!

coupon's here for one dollar off quaker, 42 oz oats or instant: http://www.quakeroats.com/DollarOffCouponBanner/default.aspx

I am not consistent in my coupon clipping, bargain hunting. I have noticed a strong correlation with how much else is going on in my life. But I only recently figured out some neat online "tricks." One is registering your Jewel Osco preferred card for ecoupons which are tailored to what you've bought in the past and if you buy that certain item you automatically get the savings at checkout. Didn't seem to work completely when I tried it last week - one item was deducted but another was not.

While doing a bit more searching for deals online, I found a neat list for deciding how to prioritize organic foods: http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php. This is determined by how much toxic stuff they can suck up while growing, from what I understand. For someone who is often torn between bargains and being nice to the earth, this is great.

Major annoyance: "Coupon printing is not supported on Linux ..." at coupons.com and so many other sites. This is NOT COOL. But since I don't have a printer at home, I'll just save the links and open them at the library to print them. This will also help me only print ones I think are really worth the hassle anyway.

Then I started browsing my neglected rss feeds and in the process found some fun things that I wanted to share (the things one learns from comics can be useful in such strange ways):

http://www.johnnywander.com/comics/140 spider plants are weird but cool

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123018405 - about the discovery of dino feathers and their colors! This is a link I found from another Johnny Wander comic.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon (If any of you don't already read The Oatmeal, now's a good time to start!)

Nasa on twitter: "Feb 1st is 7th anniversary of the Columbia accident."

Favorite postsecret: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwl7tUjQdDVwDttciNJ8RX9yq4bKrhw35qo6ACs1C1ssHKnIewb1itAQAPrFHaKKUl0GWVier9laI4ea4jyroG4FZwjhIGJytIYLHR6ltqSYe7PuBreMHLbb4qX1OqqLSwS-wxrCoxovf4/s400/spock2.jpg
In case you can't see it, the text reads: "After I shower and wrap a towel around my hair, and my eyebrows get pulled back, I like to pretend I'm a Vulcan." I honestly wonder if this is anyone I know ...

Bill Watterson on the 15th anniversary of the last Calvin and Hobbes strip:

Q: How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the Calvin stamp will you send a letter with one on the envelope?
A: Immediately. I'm going to get in my horse and buggy and snail-mail a check for my newspaper subscription.
http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html

Even though we ate a big breakfast and I'm not feeling hungry, we need to go get lunch now that it's already 1:30 pm ... need to finish making sure I've got all the docs I need to print on the usb drive and go get Colin.

Whatever happened to communication?

I started out reading this strip almost jumping up and down shouting "yes! yes! totally!" It's made me realize how I've been viewing the activity of blogging currently. And then forced me to push past this, since blogging is more than social networking (not many read this and that's fine with me) than a way to articulate and archive my thoughts, despite the scanty number of posts.

I think I'm going to force myself to stop there even though there's so much about life and thoughts to ramble on about. Perhaps this will give me the nudge I need to post short and sweet in some weird way.

Pour Becca

Social cookie

http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/080408.html
This I can relate to - especially when my most promising friendship in town goes on a cross-country road trip starting next week. *sigh* I love webcomics.

Other news: it rained today. Or rather, yesterday, since it's after 1 a.m. I've got a good grip on my final, after a hours or so of agony and confusion trying to understand what appears to be the level between theory and practice - like, pre-practice with categories etc etc.

I can't wait to see Colin tomorrow night. And to be done with this semester in less than a week.

I baked cookies tonight. Originally, they were going to be chocolate chip cookies, following this recipe "Award-winning soft chocolate chip cookies". I had to pare down the quantity, limited by "only" 1.5 sticks of butter ... well, it turned out that I didn't have vanilla pudding but "Devil's food" (really chocolatey) pudding mix. They are soft and slightly like cake because they don't spread at all (I recommend squashing them). It's a little too much chocolate for me (I also used dark chocolate chips). They are better than a couple other attempts but I still can't figure out what recipe I used at home in Charlevoix - I loved those cookies. They were the best. Maybe I can find the recipe somewhere when I visit the family next time. I gave some to Celeste and Grant tonight when Celeste came over to discuss the big ideas behind the final. (Grant is her husband. He sat and crocheted, occasionally commenting.) I felt especially socially awkward even though I'm normally comfortable with them. Other than a brief visit from Rachel in January, and Colin of course, I haven't had anyone come visit me. I am afraid I'm losing my ability to carry on a coherent verbal conversation. Eek.

Tech update: (more for personal record keeping than informing people)
I tried to reinsert my older memory stick. The new one works fine but I need more memory for HandBrake. I know it clicked in on both sides and it seemed to be all good. Then I tried turning on my computer. And all it did was beep. Once. Thrice. Thrice. Once. Whir a bit like it was thinking. Then just sat there absolutely still. I tried again. Same results. So either the slot is bad, I put it in wrong, or the stick is seriously screwed up. One last possible solution was that I was supposed to repartition (read: backup, do the resizing, then put all my files back on) before I stuck the stick in. I'll ask Colin tomorrow or whenever. I was hoping to be able to return "Hairspray" to the library since it's due tomorrow but looks like I'll have to renew it. Oh well - I've got more time on my hands next week, especially after Wednesday, if I do indeed take that whole time to do the final.

Alright, my eyes are scratchy. I'm going to head for bed now.