It could only last for so long

During the first 3 and a half years of our marriage, I would say that Justin was out of town almost half of that time. Luckily for us though a week out of town is usually only 5 days because Justin has always been on projects where he was able to come home for the weekend.

In 2008, though, we have been super spoiled. Justin was out of town for about 3 weeks in January, but he has not travelled since then. I think for the first time since we have been married, we have been together for the past 3 months straight. This is coming to an end tomorrow, though. :( Justin has a training session in San Fransisco and will be gone for 4 days. I'm already counting down to when he comes back.

In the home stretch

This week is officially week #13 of the semester which means that I am officially super-busy through the rest of the semester. I made the realization that this week I have to write 2 exam reviews and 3 exams. So once I am done grading the exams next week, I will be rushing to get the finals written and off to be copied.

I really hate the end of the semester, it may be just as bad for me as for my students!

interesting emails

As an instructor, I get interesting emails from students. Lots of them say they need help with a problem without telling me which problem, or wanting to know their grade without telling who they are. I have on occasion, though, gotten emails from people who say, "You don't know me but I would like to take your class, what and when are you teaching in future semesters."

Last week I think someone got a little confused on who I am and what I teach. This student was in my class over a year ago, but had to drop the course when her work schedule changed. The email started out simple enough, telling me who she was and that she wanted to try to take my class again and when am I teaching, etc. Here is the strange part. She then asked me for advice on her poetry and even included one of her poems for me to critique.

Did she forget she was in my math class before? Isn't that a little like asking your history teacher to help you in physics? It took me a day to figure out how to nicely respond to her and tell her that she was definitely asking the wrong person for help with poetry.

Finally!!!

We are finally feeling better here and officially say that we are no longer sick. The month of March was no friend to us and we are optimistic that April will be better.

Another thing that we finally got around to doing was ordering frames for our masters degrees. Since Justin and I typically agree on things, it should be no surprise that we each wanted the exact same frame! We now have them hanging side by side in the gameroom which we use as our office and my craft room.


I think these are our birthday presents and anniversary present for this year!

Ear Infections and Strep Throat

Today Justin and I headed back to the doctor once again with complaints from me of pain in my ears and throat and complaints from Justin about a very sore throat. We were given more antibiotics and told to go home and feel better - that is after having to pay an additional $20 co-pay a piece for a Saturday doctor visit.

What did we notice after filling the prescriptions and getting home? I was given the exact same antibiotic that was prescribed to me 12 days ago. The exact same one I finished taking 2 days ago - even though my ear first starting hurting 4 days ago. Grrrr. Should we take bets on whether or not I will be calling the doctor's office again on Monday?

It was all a lie

Justin did not just have allergies. So I got sick too. And then I had to teach 4 classes today. My throat hurts now and I have a really big frog in my throat. At least I get the day off tomorrow to try and recover some more!

Is it really the end?

Today is officially the last day of Spring Break for us. On Monday I am subbing a class in addition to my other classes so it will be exceptionally busy for me, although Justin is taking the day off work.

The first part of this week was just running errands together, me getting more fillings, us hanging out with friends, etc. But then on Wednesday Justin's allergies hit him hard. Anyone that knows us well knows that Justin has the most terrible allergies that anyone could have and that whatever blooms the month of March is no friend to him. In fact, he had been doing so well, we completely forgot about his allergy problems until Wednesday night. That is when the coughing, congestion and red itchy eyes hit.

However this time was a little different because he completely lost his voice yesterday! Today I took him to the doctor and he got prescriptions for a strong antihistamine, a stronger inhaler and they decided to give him a Z-Pack since all the congestion can lead to a sinus infection. However, the diagnosis was just as we suspected - his allergies are the root cause and so he isn't really sick (which means I don't have to worry about catching it).

Poor Justin!

They Might Be Giants concert

I had been looking forward to yesterday for a while. It was the day They Might Be Giants (TMBG) came to perform in Houston at The Meridian.


Click the triangle below to listen to the songs performed last night (if you're lucky, the music has already started), or follow this link.


Julie and I met up with my cousin Lisa and her husband, Sal, at Kim Son before the concert. I had never been there before, but it was some good food. (I ate the whole plate of beef and scallops I ordered.) The venue wasn't too far away from the restaurant, so even though we left pretty close to 9pm, we arrived at The Meridian fairly quickly.

I was a bit confused at first when we got inside. There was an empty stage right in front of us when we walked through the door, and not too many people in the room. We wandered over to where they were selling t-shirts and CDs to see what was available, and noticed that it sounded like there was some live music coming from where a sign labeled "Restrooms --->" was pointing.
After walking down a short hallway, we emerged into a larger room, with a lot more people in it, and sure enough...a band performing. It wasn't TMBG, but their opening act "Oppenheimer", from Ireland. Although they had some decent sounding songs, they did like to use the robot voice emulator quite a bit.

TMBG finally took the stage just after 10pm, and the concert ended, after two encores, close to 11:45pm. If you have ever wondered what exactly some of the lyrics are, check out This Might Be a Wiki. Here is the playlist of all the songs they played (and the albums they are from):
Houston (Meridian) - Venue Songs
Dr. Worm - Severe Tire Damage
Cyclops Rock - Mink Car
Withered Hope Live on XM - TMBG.com
Hey Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal - Miscellaneous T
The Cap'm - The Else
The Shadow Government - The Else
Apartment Four - Here Come the 123's Disc 1
Boss Of Me - What We Did This Summer
Birdhouse In Your Soul - Flood
Houston (Meridian) - Venue Songs
Take Out The Trash - The Else
Ana Ng - Lincoln
Damn Good Times - The Spine
Memo To Human Resources - The Spine
The Mesopotamians - The Else
New York City - Factory Showroom
I'm Impressed - The Else
Alphabet of Nations - Here Come The ABCs
Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head - They Might Be Giants
Particle Man - Severe Tire Damage
Older - Long Tall Weekend
Why Does The Sun Shine- (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas) - Severe Tire Damage

ENCORE 1:
How Can I Sing Like A Girl? - Factory Showroom
Clap Your Hands - Here Come The ABCs
Instanbul Not Constantinople - The Flood Show

ENCORE 2:
One Dozen Monkeys - Here Come the 123's Disc 1
It's Not My Birthday - Mightathon

I thought it was a great concert, very entertaining. Julie and I both got "The Mesopotamians" t-shirts after the concert. Here's the video of the song:

Almost time!!!

Work has been slow for Justin lately, so he decided to start his vacation today instead of tomorrow. He had a few things he needed to do for work today that he could do from home, but other than that he is lounging around working on doing things he wants to be doing on his computer.

I do not get to lounge yet. A couple weeks ago I agreed to sub 2 classes today. Luckily they are just taking exams, but I still have an hour to go. I am trying to be productive while this last class takes their exam so I have been grading quizzes. And tomorrow while my own 2 classes take their exams, I will be grading exams from my class yesterday. But I will have plenty of grading to do over spring break.

However - we are officially kicking off our relaxation time tonight by going to the They Might Be Giants concert downtown. We are super excited! It has been about 2 years since we have seen them in concert and they have come out with new material so it should be pretty good. Now if Guster and BareNaked Ladies would come to Houston again this year we would be pretty happy campers.

Almost Spring Break!

I feel like I am a student again - counting down the days until Spring Break. It isn't just me though - since Justin is taking 7 days off work, he is also counting down the days. He has a 4 day workweek this week, he is taking all next week off, and the Monday of the next week. He is taking more time off than me!

The past couple weeks have been busy for us. Just over a week ago we both joined the gym. Then we also signed up for personal training sessions for the next year. I will be meeting with a trainer once a week and Justin once every two weeks. I decided that I needed more time with a trainer than he did because I am so out of shape. It is sad to think that cardio for me used to mean jogging 5-10 miles. Now I walk (not even speed-walk) 2 miles and I am done. Yeah - I am trying to work on that. In my dreams - this is what I will look like when all is said and done.

In reality though I am hoping to just get back to about where I was when Justin and I got engaged.

For my first session with the trainer, he had me do a few variations on squats. For over 2 days after that, I had difficulty standing up, walking and especially going up and down stairs. I have done a few upper body workouts since then and they have been breezes compared to the squats!

Here's to keeping up with working out!