Astronomy, among other things

Oh, wow. Today just finished off so well!

I went to an astronomy session (you know how much I love those!) and got to hang out with my professor from last semester, as well as the SI ("Supplemental Instruction") leader, Kay Lane and because it was a lot of the same stuff as last semester I had a really good time just reaffirming my knowledge and getting comfortable with the night sky again.

We looked at the Moon (I took pictures, too!), the Andromeda galaxy again (It still looks like a piece of fuzz on the lens, to tell you the truth) and Venus, and various constellations (Taurus, Orion, Cassiopeia, etc.) All the usual stuff, but I got to hang out with friends and had a very different experience than I did last year.

After the session, I walked downstairs with a few people and we decided to go to Subway to get a sandwich. Once we had gotten our sandwiches, they invited me to go with them to BSM (Baptist Student Ministry, I think.) I went with them, and had a really great time just immersing myself in a reminder of my faith. I haven't gotten involved in any churches or anything here, and I probably won't at this point in the year, to tell the truth... but going there and being immersed in it even for an hour or so reminded me exactly why I am a Christian and why the church is such a healthy thing for me. I think I will try to go to more of these Bible studies. It just felt good to talk God with people, and I haven't really done that in a long time.

So, here are some of the better pictures of the evening! I made a facebook album of the pictures I've taken so far, and will update that whenever I get new photos. I don't know why. The moon doesn't change, but I don't think I'll ever take enough pictures!

I took this one on my way to the session, around 6:00. It was still light outside, and the blue it creates is so beautiful!


This photo is of the Moon and Venus, the star-looking thing up in the left corner. I love this picture!


When it got darker, I took another photo.


I wish this were more in focus as far as the light from the moon, but the cool thing about this photo is that you can see the rest of it! Did you know that when this occurs, it is because of light reflecting off of the Earth onto the Moon!

It keeps getting better

Still no bike, but I had the most fantastic day today! There's too much to make a big, connected blog, so I guess I'll just share my day in little snippits.

My French class went from 30 people last semester down to 13 this semester, (a lot of people transferred to the other teacher.) The only reason I see this is good is that as we start getting into more difficult stuff, I get more personal attention. For example, I was able to ask my question that I've been harboring for months about the pronunciation of double l's. Sometimes it's like "elle" and sometimes it's like "y" and I FINALLY got my answer. (With a few exceptions, it's a y sound after an 'i'. So viella sounds like "vee-ay-ah".) Aside from my question finally being answered, the professor had me read a rather long passage aloud, and then complimented me on my great French accent. I practically floated out of that class.

So I wasn't entirely honest with y'all about my article in last week's paper. I was on the front page, yes, but there was a rather terrible misprint on the "continued on page 3" part... where they reprinted the first half of the article again, instead of the second half! I blogged about how happy I was - because I really was happy and honored and all of those other wonderful little fuzzy feelings, but it was a little bittersweet. I really did think that my lil article would not see the light of day in it's full form... but I received a pleasant surprise this morning when I picked up the Paisano and saw my article, fully printed on page 5. Hooray!

I posted a chapter of my latest Fanfiction story this afternoon, and I got a review for it this evening! I've been posting once a week for a month now and only received two reviews so far... it makes me a little sad (in comparison, my story of 4 years ago currently has almost 300 reviews), but I love every review that comes into my inbox. It's like a little piece of bottled up sunshine, I'm not even kidding. (I was talking to Siobhan about this the other day, and she blames the slow business as a lull in the fandom. She's probably right... It has been five years since the last film was released. I wait in eagerness for 2011, when the Hobbit comes out. Plenty of reviews for me then!) (Right then, when I realized that it had been five years since the movies had come out I had an "Oh god, I feel old" moment, which probably shouldn't be happening for a good few more years.)

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. 'Nuff said.

During my Astronomy class, I played my 800th game of Solitaire on this computer! (We were talking about the sun... and while I love the class, I haven't really learned anything new yet. So, Solitaire and Hearts for me!)

That said, I finally figured out how to play Hearts over the last few weeks. Haven't won a single game yet, but at least I'm not getting fourth anymore.

Duncan has this remote-computer-control website that he uses to fix computers when he can't actually be physically there fixing computers. He logged onto me today, and made me smile. He didn't do anything like mess with settings or 'ghost type' anything in notepad... but it was still kind of funny to realize that he was there.

I (finally) remembered that I have a Twitter account, and made it so you can see my Tweets over there in the sidebar. (Twitter, for all y'all who don't know, is a sort of "mini blog" where you type in what you are doing in 140 characters or less.)

I think that I finally know how to spell 'definitely'. It's always been one of those words that I consistently misspell, and I haven't misspelled it in a week or two now. Perhaps I am cured! (Brandlyn, take heed. You, too, and learn to spell right.)

Well, it is 1am now and while I love blogging about my wonderful day, I do have to go to bed sometime. (And I can sleep late tomorrow morning! Hooray for 12:30 classes!)

Better, and a few funnies

My bike is still gone, the pizza's gone, the kitchen and bathroom need a good scrub...

But you know what? I am feeling a lot better today. Not all the way better, but better.

Time does that for me, you know? I'm one of those people who just can't seem to stay mad at anyone, too. I usually go to bed and then wake up and forget it ever happened. I guess I'm the same way with stuff that makes me stressed. Once I compartmentalize everything in my brain, de-stress, and find something really good to distract me (this week, the Sookie Stackhouse series, which was recommended to me by Kerry-Lynn. I think she's created a monster - I'm nearly on book 3), I find that everything isn't so bad and that walking when the weather is slowly improving isn't so bad. (Today doesn't count on the weather front. It was a million percent humidity and dropped from 60 to 40 degrees while I was sitting in class this afternoon, and now that the sun is down it's probably in the low 30s.) As far as a bike goes, I think that I will wait a month or so before I do anything about it. I don't know if I'll take another one from home (is there another bike that fits me at home?) or head over to Target and find a pretty one, but I will let the UTSA Police department do their thang. They've got a shining reputation here, and I hope they live up to it.

Tonight, I feel inspired by Barb's most recent blog, and want to list a few of the more amusing occurances that have happened to me recently. So while I smile, y'all can smile too. :)

In my Astronomy class last Friday, the professor handed out a quiz of general knowledge, so he could gauge how much we knew already. He didn't take down names, so he was able to gather the data up and present the most popular answers to us yesterday. (I got all of the questions right that had a real answer, by the way!) The questions were things like "Is there anything beyond Pluto?" (yes), and "What types of planets are there?" (terrestrial and gas giants). One of the questions was "What planet do you hear about most in the news?" Most people answered Mars. I circled 'Mars' too, but by the question wrote, "You mean aside from Earth?" The professor was so amused that he told the whole class about it yesterday.

There was a leak somewhere in our building in University Oaks, and the repairmen were working late into the night last night trying to fix it. (I know this because it seemed that they were working right outside my window.) This morning, the water was back on, and so I delightedly took a shower, happily basking in the warmth of the water and thanking my showerhead that the warm water was working. (For the last few months, around 20% of the showers I have taken have been very quick, very cold showers.) I got out of the shower, dried myself off, got dressed and started doing the dishes. As soon as I finished the last dish, the water sputtered and went out. "Excellent timing," I told the sink, and picked up my bag and went to class.

I was talking to Brandlyn the other night on the phone, talking about how irritated I was that some people just cannot seem to grasp correct grammar when they write. I was all in a huff, when Brandlyn pointed out very nicely "You want to be an editor, right Stef? Well, without all of us being awful writers, you'd be out of a job before you even had it."

Right, well that's all I can think of right now. I have a bit of English to read and then I am off to bed! Well, I am off to read more of the Sookie Stackhouse book (I am reading "Living Dead in Dallas"... which I would totally dig, because Dallas is just about the most boring city I've ever come across) and I have every intention of getting so lost in it that I lose all sense of time.

Bad Day

I hate writing blogs like this, but I guess that every once and a while bad days happen.

I haven't had the best weekend.

Abby is feeling a lot better, though, and we've had a relaxing weekend, if anything. I don't have the flu, and it doesn't seem like I will get it now, what with all of the active flu prevention I have been doing over the last few days. I think at this point that flu virus would have many easier targets than me. (So rawr, flu virus! Take that.)

I wear glasses to see distances, and usually don't wear them on the weekends, since I don't need them to see boards or notes or screens. But last night I got an awful headache, likely from eye strain, so I sat in my dark room, read a book for a few hours (I understand that reading would probably add to the eye strain, but it's better than a bright tv... and it was a good book), and made angry faces through my window at our neighbors downstairs, who love to invite friends over who are loud, have loud cars, or have loud stereos in their loud cars. As per usual, I woke up headache free in the morning, but just to be on the safe side, I wore my glasses all day...

Which turned out to be a bad idea. I wore my glasses and found that, because of wearing my glasses, I have a muscle headache. What must have added to this headache is that my bike was stolen this weekend.

Right from under my nose (well, balcony), somebody stole my bike. It was locked up, it was there on Friday... but sometime between Friday night and this afternoon, no more bike.

It's not like I need the bike to get around - I have got a car - but I do enjoy that bike. It's a lot faster than walking to the campus, and I love the fact that I can speed right through that parking lot that seems to just get bigger every time I see it. I guess that what I feel is that it's more of an irritation that of the hundreds of bikes around this apartment complex mine gets stolen. The 8+ year old bike whose tires have never been replaced and who hasn't ever seen much love, since I left it in the garage for most of my teenage years. Why me?

I talked to the campus police, reported the theft, and now what I am left with is no bike and another massive headache.

I need chocolate. And a giant hug.

On Mothering

I have this habit of mothering people. It's not exactly a bad habit, but I can always imagine myself later in life treating everyone in a very Mrs. Weasley-ish way, (annual hand knitted Christmas sweaters included) whether they are my own children or not. In fact, if I could be as awesome as Mrs. Weaseley, I'd be set. (I am also jealous of her magical, self-knitting needles. Jealoussss.) Brandlyn can attest to my mothering habit, Abby can attest, I am sure that you could get Ana and Jane, Barb's girls, to attest, too. It's a pretty strong urge at the worst of times. Now, I'm not a mother, not going to be a mother any time soon (Mom, breathe), and since I have no small children to mother while I'm at college, Abby has more often than not been on the receiving end of this for the last few months.

Well, today Abby has been the sole recipient of all of this mothering attention, and it has simply drained me. I am exhausted.

Abby has the flu.

(No, I am not sick, and I am doing everything in my power to keep it that way.Uber vitamin C, flu prevention medication, religiously cleaning everything. You know, the works.)

It is the perfect storm of circumstances for me to exhaust my entire stock of mothering attention in a few short hours, and I have definitely gotten rid of some of it. I wrote a funny "feel better" note on the whiteboard this morning using funny nicknames that would cheer her up (Hers is Superego and mine is Id, just so you know. She nicknamed me Id because I have this habit of constantly pointing out really stupid and useless stuff "that we need!" when we go shopping. It's a good game when we're at Costco, because there's lots of fun and useless stuff there!) I went shopping and bought medicine, food, and a thermometer, and brought back vegetables to make delicious, homemade soup. I proceeded to make the soup (it turned out perfectly, by the way), the Theraflu, tea, snacks, and anything else that Abby wanted all day... and boy.

I am exhausted, but it's that good kind of tired where you know that you got so much done today that tomorrow is going to be better.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go down a glass of orange juice and then go to bed!

Socks and Scones

Last weekend I made a batch of small, sweet raisin scones, and to my surprise, they all got eaten within days by Abby and I. (Because you see, last time I made scones they sat on top of the toaster oven in a box for a good two weeks before I finally decided that they probably weren't good anymore.)

So tonight, because the scones are all gone (and because they're yummy 'grab on the way out' breakfasts) I made another batch of the mini scones. If I can brag a bit, mine taste much better than the crap you find at Starbucks. (Bux ain't got nothin on me.)


See? Little balls of delicious pastry. As soon as I can get my hands on the proper ingredients, instead of substitutes, I'm going to work on shaping them. As it is, they're a little too moist... but hopefully next week (after a good grocery shop over the weekend) I'll be able to make them look a little prettier!

Speaking of pretty... Look at the socks I'm working on!!



They are made out of Noelle's Noodles (flavor: Taos), and they are delicious! Wonderful yarn to work with, and a simply beautiful colorway. It's just a simple 2x2 rib all the way down the sock... I didn't want to take anything away from those colors!

Well, I have English homework to write and US History to read... so while I do that, feast your eyes on my delicious scones and socks.

Okay, can I brag a little?

It's not exactly a secret that I've been writing for my school's newspaper for the last few months, in fact, I'd say that I spend a lot of complaining about it. Well, the kind of complaining that is generally pretty good-natured -"I have so much to do this week..." kind of stuff. In truth, I love writing, and I love seeing my name in print even more. (I can also compare this to the fact that I am a product knitter - I knit something to "have" the object, not necessarily just for the joy of making that product... Though I do love knitting, don't get me wrong.) Nothing brings me more joy than seeing the byline By Stefanie Powling, and knowing that I put the effort into it.

Today, when I picked up the Paisano, my article was not only on the front page, but also the headlining story on the front page.

In writer world, that's just about as good as seeing your name in lights up on Broadway.

(Warning: Gushing content ahead!) I mean, look at me! I'm even above the new President. It's not a vastly important article - just a follow-up story on an article written a few months ago about this awful professor who wasn't "fired"... but look at it! Isn't it beautiful? And on the front page? And at the top? And in bold? And all pretty?

Oh, yes. Life is good, today!!

(To read my fantastically Fancy Front Page Article... click on this link!)