Shown below is half of the 8.6 mile walk Nick and I did on Thursday. (Going from A, to B, to the last dot on the left. After that google maps got weird. From that dot, we head back east following the edge of those green fields, then back towards B.) We’ll be biking at least part of it tomorrow. Our normal walk goes from point A to B and back, which is 4.4 miles total. I have mentioned before that I like walks. I meant it. Coming soon are photos of the awesome critters we get to see during these walks. At least two of the four miles of the standard walk are off of drivable roads. Wonderful. And about 1/3 of the longer walk is.

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Someday I hope to be able to run this whole route.

…did you hear that? That was me, falling over laughing.

I hate to admit it, but calculus is actually fairly useful. I can see why so many majors require it. Don’t tell my boyfriend I told you that. He’ll gloat. (He is a math person. I am not. He has defended its merits. Sadly, he’s been right).

Sorry for the meager posting lately. As you’ll recall from past terms (if you’ve been reading that long) I tend not to post much toward the end of terms. To make up for it, here is my boyfriend looking ridiculous with an absurdly large chicken.

If you’ll recall, my heart has recently been stolen by a tiny chicken. I bring to you know video of little peep chasing my boyfriend’s hand. She thinks hands are her mama. And she’s been practicing flying. Video is best at high volume, so you can hear her peeps.

Video is mine, don’t steal, so on and so forth.

Some women read romance novels. Some go shopping. SOME keep up with celebrity gossip. Still others eat chocolate, watch lifetime made for tv movies, and knit.

I watch CMT. Not “cribs” and “redneck wedding”. I watch shows like “extreme makeover: home edition” and “world’s strictest parents”. These shows WRECK me. For instance, I watched an episode of extreme makeover home last night about a desert storm veteran. As a result of having been over there, his immune system was compromised. As a result of that, he developed multiple sclerosis (MS). But did he complain? No. He started lobbying for veteran right and went to visit veterans without families in the hospital, in spite of the fact that he couldn’t get himself into the bathroom. And when the younger of his two children, his son, was dragged under a service truck for 24 feet? He steered his motorized wheelchair into the road and dove out, onto the road, and immediately tended to his son’s injuries, having been a combat medic. Thanks to his efforts, his son lived, though one of his arms had to be amputated. Their house was falling apart, and the entire thing hinged on the strength of the wife and mother, Carol. They rebuilt their whole house and changed their lives. The husband also received a special wheelchair from CVS which allows him to “stand”. He danced with his wife, and can now stand when his daughter walks to get her diploma and gets married.

I don’t know exactly why I have such an obsession with these shows. Part of it is probably the philanthropy of it, the fact that people change the lives of others out of the kindness of their hearts (and wallets). Another part is probably that it reminds me just how lucky I truly am. Whatever the reason, I love these shows and appreciate that my boyfriend deals with my sniffly self whenever I watch them.

I now bring you a guest post from my dear boyfriend Nick to tide us over as I wade through finals:

My roommate, Travis, is generally a quiet individual who does not express emotional extremes of any kind. One can assume he will be of an even keel and will be consistently non-offensive and amicable. With that said, here is a conversation we had earlier this week:

Me: Travis, if we cure cancer, what’s going to kill people?

Travis: That’s what terrorists are for.

You may have noticed I have not posted in a couple days. This is because my life EXPLODED. Did you feel the ground shaking? That’s what that was. If I wasn’t so lazy I would post a picture of my apartment as evidence. It was hit by the main blast. (Although I did clean the kitchen last night. Woo go me).

Now, I know what you are all thinking. “What on earth happened to make you not blog for two days? After all, you’re the best part of my day!” (or something like that..) Well I will tell you what happened. Baking. Chickens. Illness. Homework.

Let’s start with the homework. I had a lot to do. I could not do it because of the aforementioned illness. I wasn’t sick. My dear boyfriend was. You know how some people are so sweet and cute when they’re sick? They cooperate with you, feel bad about the whole thing and willingly take their aspirin? Yeah, that wasn’t him. Even with a temperature of 101.7, he wouldn’t take any medicine. With a deep cough he refused cough drops. While sweating through my sheets and mattress cover, he was uncooperative and sullen when I tried to use a damp cloth to cool off his neck. It’s all, dude? I’m not kicking your hiney back to your apartment right now and I’m making you whatever food you want. GIVE A LITTLE HERE. But I digress. He’s healthy now, and back to being a big kid. So we’re good.

Next excuse. CHICKENS. Oh lordy I love chickens. You all should know this by now. My aunt Ronda has a ton of chickens. She has all sorts of amazing award winners. Phoenixes, Cochins, Old English, and so on. Well, she recently got news that she had to move. As such, she needs somewhere for her city of chickens to live for a while. Now who on earth does she know that loves chickens and has more acrage than they know what to do with? Oh, that’s right! My parent’s house. =)

Wednesday afternoon, right after work, I hopped in my car and drove the hour to their house. My mom and I got the truck and trailer ready then made the hour and a half drive down to my aunt’s. With the help of my cousin, uncle, and a family friend, we caught the 30-odd chickens and dismantled chicken town. We packed it all up and drove back home. (a dog and a dove were also added to the menagerie. Woo!) Some of the chickens are going to my aunt daphne, but most are settled in around my parent’s house. I didn’t get back into town until 9 that night, and ended up being in a computer lab until 2am (remember that homework?). Needless to say, the past few days have been a tad hectic. I would have taken pictures of the chicken exodus, but after all that work I just could not convince myself to haul my butt back out into the cold. I’m sure you understand. If not, then neener-neener-boo-boo.

Oh yeah! I forgot all about the baking. I mentioned it briefly in a post earlier, but didn’t explain everything. I was cooking because I had a sick-as-a-dog boyfriend and couldn’t go anywhere. (and if I cleaned, he moaned about how he should be helping. Riiiiight.) After those beans and apples, I also made some oatmeal muffins, and a millet wheat bread, and some onion flat bread. Now enter last night. Approximately 4,786 billion pizza commercials played in a row. Okay, it was more like 3, but they went through my head 4,786 billion times. Being a good little financial steward (or trying to be) I decided I’d stick it to the man and make my own pizza. Go me! You know what? It actually turned out really well. I love it! Nick and his roommate were also fans. Sure, I should probably be more modest about it, but I was expecting disaster. This was an awesome surprise. The crust was amazing. You can find the recipe here. I made half peperoni and olive, half cheese and olive. Aren’t you proud of me?

That’s been my story the past couple days. The coming ones will hold preparation for finals. Woopee. (That was sarcasm). What have you been up to?