Spring Quarter, you have been 86ed!

For those of you that are sheltered, to "86" something means "To remove, end usage, or take something out or away." according to Urban Dictionary.

Spring quarter wasn't all that bad. I mean, I even manged to post on here once or twice. Spring quarter was a little bit hectic. I managed to finish up the quarter with an A in both classes I took. Not too shabby. I got A's on both individual papers I wrote, as well as on the group assignments. Yay! This means I still maintain my 4.0! I am very proud and very excited about this. I did kind of come to terms with the fact that I may get a B, and was willing to be ok with that. But who am I kidding, I really wanted to maintain the 4.0.

The classes I taught were finished up on Wednesday. I had all the projects graded, then only had to enter final grades. Everything was in before 6pm on Wed. We had graduation on Thursday. It is tough to see some great students leave us, but I am excited for them to do great things in the field. They will certainly be missed. The picture is of this quarter's grads and the rock star Vet Tech department instructors. Tomorrow is my first official day off in a really long time. I don't have anything that needs to be done for teaching or for taking classes, I don't work at Lola's, I am completely uncommitted to anything. My plans: nothing! and Im going to enjoy it. After tomorrow I will start working on prepping my class for next quarter. I will be teaching one class: Parasitology and taking two classes: Global Citizenship and Intro to Humanities.

Sumer time, sumer time, sum sum sumer time.....

You can sing the rest if you would like to.

Tomorrow is the start of week 11 of our 12 week spring quarter. That means I am almost finished with this quarter. In anticipation of the three week break and having a much lighter course load next quarter, I decided to pick up a part time job. Yeah, teaching is technically a part time gig, which means now I have two part time jobs. I started this past week as a line cook. It has been pretty fun so far. My brother has been training me in. After a 10 hours of "training" I was pretty much on my own yesterday. I think I did ok. I only messed up a few salads. My station is salads and deep fried things. I do not deep fry the salads. I make a pretty mean fish 'n chips though. I like cooking, and the prep work doesn't bother me. I am a little rusty with restaurant cooking as my experience in a restaurant is 15 years ago, but I think I am picking it up pretty quickly.

As I mentioned, next quarter I have a much lighter course load, teach just two classes. Hematology and Parasitology. Both of these are classes that I really like. Bugs and blood. Fun stuff! For comparison, this quarter I teach 3 classes plus I am the surgery assistant technician, so technically 4 classes, plus I am taking 2 classes. Next quarter, teaching two & taking two.

The two classes I am taking this quarter are 300 and 400 level businesses classes. Next quarter I am taking "Intro to humanities" and a class called "Global Citizenship." It isn't at all what it sounds. It used to be called student success. It is a class that first quarter students take to become acclimated to college life and do a service learning project (community service that we "reflect on" in order to learn) It is a two credit 100 level class. The humanities class is also a 100 level class.

Nick has graduated from school and taking (and I am sure passed) the board. He should find out in a week or two. He starts his residency on June 27. In the meantime I am keeping him quite busy with to do lists.

And since I wouldn't be a true Minnesotan if I didn't comment on the weather: Really, it went from cool to 100+ then dropped 40 degrees in 2 days. Wow!! I dont really like 103, but I kinda like it in the upper 70s, maybe even 80s. BTW, the last time it hit triple digits in MN: July 15, 2006. Yup, just so happened I got married that day.

Spring time!

So, it's spring time, at least according to the calendar. I figured that was as good a reason as any to update my blog. So, new look, new short post.

Nick graduates from Pharmacy school 8 days. I am SOOOOOO excited. It will certainly be nice to move past being students.

A new tradition

Last night Guster played the State Theater in Mpls. I, being the great Guster fan I am, had no idea they were even going to be in town. I found out on Wed. that Nick had a friend with tickets to sell. Of course I wanted to go!

This was my first Guster show sans "Asia Minor" (the two gals that I did my Gustering with back in the day). This was also the first concert that Nick and I went to together, and Nicks first time seeing Guster. I was a little sad about not seeing them with Courtney, but super excited about introducing Nick to the Guster experience.

The opening bad was Good Old War. They were decent. I have no idea what their lyrics were, but the music was catchy. They did have pretty awesome 3-part harmonies.

Guster did not disappoint. They played a fair amount of their older stuff, including their "updated" Airport song. Its updated because it has more of a disco feel. It was different, but still good.

I was a little concerned before it started. Joe, who had be come a favorite of mine, had left Guster in October. Who is gonna play banjo now? Well, they had found Luke. I was very cautious about Luke. I wasn't sure if I could/should like Luke. I really liked Joe. I miss Joe. Luke was pretty awesome. He rocked the harmonica as Joe had. He has some pretty serious instrument skillzzzz.

For the second time of the 16 I have seen them, they did a true encore. Of course Ryan talked about the "last song of the regular set, before the encore." He decided to an anti-encore. Adam wanted it to be silence rather than booing, so that's what was decided. They left the stage, the crowd grew quiet and Guster returned to the stage. They proceeded to do 4 more songs. They left the stage. The lights came up and the roadies were starting to take things down. The fans wanted more. Guster obliged. We got the awesome unplugged version of Jesus on the Radio. Luke totally owned the banjo. I have much love for Luke. I still miss Joe, but I will accept Luke.

So, the show was awesome and Nick and I loved it. We did realize there was an abundance of Chadbags there. (Let me know if you need a definition of the term) The group of 40-somethings in front of us was rather obnoxious. There were 4 couples. They were chadbags. They were disruptive and annoying. One of them kept doing air guitar moves. Now, I love Guster, but Guster is not really an air guitar type band. The other kept yelling "It's THAT song!" and proceeded to "rock out" head banging-esque to most of their songs. The gal he was with apparently knows one way to dance. That is how she danced to every song. She did the 40 year old white chick at a club, crossed with jazzercise moves. She danced like this to EVERY song. Um, i don't recall Guster being played at the clubs, and there are a few more laid back, slower numbers. This dancing just isn't ok with me.

Aside from the Chadbags, the crowed was about what I expected. The "North Face" jacket demographic and the belt-less demographic. Most of the fans were a tad older than the last few times I saw them. Makes sense though, Guster has aged a few years, so has the fan base.

When seeing Guster with Asia Minor, going to Perkins was always the traditional way to end the evening. Nick and I did not. Apparently as Guster has aged (according to Ryan, a bunch of old guys making music) so have I.

Looking forward to their next MN show.

It's a boy!

Meet our new kitty. He doesn't have a name yet. He was one of those infamous "free cats." We got him from one of the rescue organizations MSB Shakopee works with. They, like many shelters, have more cats than they know what to do with. Many of you know I've been waiting for the right orange kitty to need my home. Well, he is it! He is such a laid back cat! His personality is a stark contrast to Emmitt. A significant difference is new kitty loves to be cuddled and petted and have his belly rubbed, any time! If you try to touch Emmitt when he doesn't want attention, he will bite. Anyway, feel free to throw out some name suggestions. We are trying to find a name that suits him. He is a big kitty, but very laid back, likes attention and is even a little needy sometimes. He is tolerant of most things. He doesn't pay much attention to Emmitt and his attitude. He is a good kitty.

It's been how long?

Dear blog reader,

I'm sorry I have fallen off the face of the earth in the last 3 months. Let's see, in that time we prepped and sold our home in Cottage Grove and moved to Waconia. Nick finished classroom studies and has started rotations. I finished a crazy quarter and have started the next one. We took a little time off to visit New Ulm, MN and the Schell Brewery where we sampled a few beers and found some we like. We also saw Herman the German. Good times. This past week my dad's oldest brother passed away very unexpectedly. It made me very glad we are living so close to family.

The end of the quater

Winter quarter is finally over! Graduation was tonight. I have all of my final grades entered. I am ready for a week off. Of course, that week off only means I wont be at school three days next week. I plan to be there 1 or 2 days getting next quarter ready. I am teaching 5 courses and taking a class. Yeah, a little scary. Of the 5, I have taught 2 of them before. There are two sections of the same course, and the last one, I'll wing it!

So with my next few days off I will be doing some Relay work. We still have lots to do. Let me know if you can help. Don't forget to visit my website and make your tax deductible donation. Click here.

I will also be working on cleaning the house. With this past quarter being as hectic as it was, the house is in disarray. I don't like it. I plan to remedy this.

So, if you left messages or sent emails that I never responded to, I am sorry, and please try again. :D

I'm off to bed. First on the To-do list: Sleep in.

Week 7

This week is week 7 of our quarter. This quarter I am teaching 5 classes. Last quarter I taught 3. I really am enjoying teaching. Currently we are just 2 weeks away from the AVMA (our accrediting body) coming for a site visit to review our accreditation. This means that we are very busy trying to make sure "all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed." This also means the stress level has kicked up a whole lot more notches. I was a little bit stressed just with classes and getting lessons planned and papers graded. This has added a whole new level.

Last weekend we drove to Michigan to meet our newest Niece, Abel. We had the honor of attending and celebrating her baptism with much of the family. We got to see Nick's brother and family from Texas, including our nephew, Nick's parents, Nick's sister (Bel's mom) and family and her in-laws. The Grunklee family is a great family.

The trip was great, but a lot of driving in a few short days. We left Friday am, drove 11 1/2 hours to make it to Bay City around 8pm local time. We left Sunday and drove to Valpo Indiana where my cousin, Heidi lives. Amy, Heidi's sister, was also there. It was fun to have dinner and visit with them and catch some of the olympics. Monday morning we headed out and arrived home about 4pm. It was a fast trip with lots of driving, but the weather was good and we got to see a lot of family. :D
Here is a picture of me and Bel.

WA Frost

Tonight Nick and I celebrated the fourth anniversary of our engagement. To date this is the one anniversary/holiday that we consistently celebrate on the date. As is the tradition we went to WA Frost for dinner. The Moonen Christmas was today as well, so we skipped some of that eating and ducked out for dinner, then returned. Due to the cold, I didn't even suggest we visit Rice Park, which is where Nick actually proposed. It was a fantastic dinner as usual.

Nick had the Pork Belly. Basically that is a cut of pork from the same area as bacon, so it is a fairly fatty piece of meat. He liked it. I had the Venison. It was awesome! It was med-rare and I could cut it with a butter knife. Yummy! We also had the 3 cheese platter, which is tradition. We always let our server pick the three (and yes we like Blue cheese) and have never been disappointed.

I love that they have some "mini desserts." Basically they have desserts that take about 4 bites. Perfect to get the creme brulee with out having to eat a huge dessert.

Pictures to follow

My attempt at cooking Korean food

Having gone out for Korean food last month, I was kind of excited to have it again. That opportunity presented itself when I had about a pound of round steak left. This isn't regular round steak. It is home grown from my aunt and uncle. So with a pound of if left, I didn't want to waste it on something not tasty. So I decided to try Bulgogi. This is a Korean dish that is basically marinated and then quickly stir fried beef. I just so happened to most everything I needed. So I attempted. It turned out pretty well. I think I will make it again in the future, though I will likely try to slice the beef thinner. I would also like to try a cast iron frying pan. But that's another post for another day.