"Mandy? There's a rat outside my door..."
Now Playing: Geto Boys: Die Mother Fuckers
Topic: Apartment
I originally woke up at like 6:05 because my body has been trained to realize that 5 out of 7 days, that's oversleeping. I noticed the time and then went back to sleep. Only to have the phone ring about half an hour later. I was going to tell the person off but it turned out to be my roommate, Julie.

"Mandy? There's a rat outside my door."

That woke me up. I open my door a crack and see the trap Julie set in front of her door not where she left it. A few seconds later, I see something flopping at the other end of the door. It was a very much alive rat partically caught in the trap. I informed Julie of this on the phone. She wasn't sure what to do because she didn't want to open her door. I told her I would put on shoes and hung up. I slipped on my sneakers and went for a closer look.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the rat only had the top part of its mouth in the trap and it was trying desperately trying to get loose. It struggled with the trap every few seconds. I could see how hard it was breathing. The other thing I noticed was that it had a tail. My mind was reeling with what I could possibly use to kill the thing but I couldn't think of anything. Julie and I communicated through her door about some possibilities, mainly trying to kill it but we didn't know how.

I went downstairs and got the cleaning gloves and a big trash bag. I was hoping to kind of drag the rat by the trap into the bag. I started to drag and it started to fight and flop. I realized that this wasn't quite going to work. So I used the middle of the bag and dragged from there. I got the rat inside the bag and closed it up. Julie asked what was going and I told her that I had it and I was now going to run like hell to the trash can.

Which is precisely what I did. It was still fighting in the bag and I could hear it but I flung the bag at the trash can when I got there. I actually missed and the bag went behind the dumpster. I cursed that it was back there and that I didn't tie the bag but decided I didn't care. It was out of our house. I turn to see Juile coming down to the dumpster with a tennis racket. She asked if it had a tail and I told her unfortunately.

We went back inside and checked the two remaining traps. Both were missing their bait. We agreed that the rats are getting desperate. We still don't know where they are coming from. Julie explained that she woke up to the rat shrieking in pain and fighting the trap against her door. She apologized for waking me but I told her that that was an emergency and needed waking. We agreed that we would somehow need to put bait, sticky, probably peanut butter, on the two empty traps and get a couple more traps. Preferably the one like Julie had which was easy to set, no risk of losing a finger. We also agreed that we were very much awake now and that the adrenaline was pumping and we could not go back to sleep.

So we had at least three rats in our apartment. One's dead, one's alive but partially caught in a trap and disposed of, and the last one we know about is still in the apartment but tailless. But at least we're catching them now.

Things to know about Cal Poly's wireless access (aka, answers to frequently asked questions today)
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Work
It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

You must have your laptop with you to sign up.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

You must have a wireless card in your laptop or an external one.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

If you live off campus, you must have anti-virus software installed on your computer. If you live on campus, ResNet must check out your computer.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

You must have your Cal Poly ID to sign up.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

You cannot sign up for your son or daughter.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.
(are we noticing a pattern yet?)

On the form, list a phone number that you can be reached at.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

On the form, list an e-mail address you can be reached at. (although if you haven't changed your EDA yet, your Cal Poly address and the one you listed are basically the same).

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

We're open until 5 today and then 8 to 5 tomorrow. After that, you can find us in our regular location.

It's free.

It's not available in the dorms. You must talk to ResNet about getting a wired connection in the dorms.

"It's been...
Mood:  lazy
Topic: School
two weeks since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side
and said you're crazy
Five days since I laughed at you saying
Get that together come back and see me
Hold it now and watch the hoodwink
As I make you stop, think
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
Can't understand what I mean?"


This has been a presentation of:
If my research paper could talk

Funky coin
While walking home today, along side the train track I saw a dime so I decided to pick it up. Except that part of it is flattened. Upon closer inspection, and comparison with a good dime, it looks as if my dime is now the size of a penny and also has the impression of the back of a penny on the front of the dime and a fainter impression of the front of a penny on the back of the dime. So it's kind of like an 11? coin. Except not.

Today's lesson: half burnt ass=not fun.
spent about an hour and a half by the pool this afternoon. It was quite relaxing. The pool was somewhat heated too but cold enough to cool me off. As Kathyrn pointed out after I got back, for her last summer, the pool seemed to get hotter as the summer went on but was ice cold after all the senior citizens left. Yes, once again (I would link if I could find it), Valencia has a lot of senior citizens living here over the summer. At least not too many in my area this year. But anyway, I left the pool when I was one of two people under 50 out of like 6 people there. I managed to get some color on my back with a little bit of burns towards the top and by the suit because I couldn't get the sunscreen over there. But I definitely have a tan line on my back. But apparently, that is all the sunscreen I need to get color. I put more on my legs and arms and there is no difference there. I didn't get far enough up on my legs though and managed to burn my ass.

Visitors!
Around 8 or so, I was downstairs watching Law & Order and waiting for my last load of laundry to finish drying and I was making cookies. Then suddenly, Willy barks and I open the door to see Nick and Joe standing there. They had decided to go for a walk and decided to drop by. It was quite fun to have visitors, I wish I had them more often. We talked and ate cookies until about 10 when both of them started to get sleepy. They were thinking of going to the Ren Faire on Saturday. I told them that if I didn't get anyone for Boomers (no one of yet), I'd love to join them at the Ren Faire on Saturday instead of going possibly by myself on Sunday. Overall, a very enjoyable evening. And Kathyrn came home right as they were leaving so we're finally going to be living together despite her having moved in two weeks ago, hehehe.

I should shop at Albertson's on Wednesdays more often. They're ad deals end on Tuesdays. Except they don't always remember to take the sticker off. Like today for instance. There was a sticker saying my cereal was on sale for 3/4.98. So I bought the 3 and a bottle of soda. I wasn't really paying attention during ring up though and didn't realize that my savings card didn't take off enough for the cereal. Once I got outside, I realized the overcharge and went back in and looked at the cereal to make sure I got the correct time before I complained. Well I did but I also saw the tiny print saying that the offer expired yesterday. The last time this happened (don't remember when but it was with waffles), I got one of the product free and the other at the discount price. So I went and asked about the price. So I got box of cereal for free and the other two at the discounted price. Which came to 3 boxes of cereal for $3.71. Gotta love it when the market makes mistakes.

Qotd
Napo37 (5:02:57 PM): Isn't it fun that our day pretty much revolves around "not doing less than that other person"?

In other news...
Meghan called last night. She's doing very well. She said she was trying to call a friend for an hour each night. I got slightly jipped because I got closer to 40 minutes but she had to get ready to go bowling with her co-workers. She wanted to show them that, yes, she is a girl. I had to laugh at that and suggested she wear tight pants. She offered for me to come visit for a weekend and I said I would talk to Matt about it as it would be logical for us to go together since she said that it was like a 10 hour drive. Although, that's probably with her driving. I just plugged it into Map Quest and it says only 7 hours. But that doesn't account for traffic and getting lost. But anyway, she said she likes her job despite her weird hours (works 6am to 3pm so gets up at 4:45am and goes to bed at 8:30pm). She said her apartment's floor are uneven and can play tricks on your eyes at first and that she lives across the street from the bowling alley. And apparently, bowling is one of the few things to do in Weed. Anything else you have to go Redding, Oregon as it's the nearest real town. She sounded good and happy.

In some other news, over the past few days I drank a lot of water. Like 4-5 bottles. Each bottle is 24 ounces. Needless to say I've been having to go to the bathroom a lot as well. I'm not sure if it's a fear of getting dehydrated again (doubtful as SLO is refusing to even get above 75, grrr), trying to stay cool in my constantly hot apartment, trying to drink water instead of eat crap or the new mediciene but I am definitely drinking more water a day than I think I have ever before in my life. (Talk about a run-on sentence...).

Now I think I'll get back to cleaning and organizing. I managed to clear half my floor and clean up my closet a bit. next I'll be seeing if I have a desk.

Palm Desert Vacation
Just came back from my family vacation in Palm Desert in celebration of my birthday. Here's how it went:

Friday: Drove to LA to meet Jess so we could drive down together. I gave myself 5 hours to get there expecting a lot of traffic but I didn't hit any until I reached the 405. So I got to her place early so I went to the Century City Mall since she was still at work at stuff. She was able to get out early so I picked us up some lunch from the food court and then met her back at her place. We ended up leaving for Palm Desert around 4. We didn't get there until a little before 8. We met up with my parents-poor Mom was sick the entire trip- and my brother, who had driven down the night before, at the hotel. It was more like a mini apartment for Justin, Jess and my rooms (we only found out a few weeks ago that Tiffany wasn't going so Mom had booked two rooms for the kids) because Justin's room was a studio so it had a mini-kitchen and the other two rooms had plates, glasses and a refridgerator but no stove or dishwasher. Then we all went out to dinner at this place called Sammy's. I got a pizza and those of us not on (or exactly following *cough*Dad*cough*) a low carb diet, shared in the Messy Sundae. Back at the hotel, we played Craninum Hoopla.


Saturday:Mom, Jess and I went to the gym while Dad and Justin golfed. I had to borrow clothes from Dad because I wasn't planning on working out and as such, also didn't bring my inhaler. I did do 30 minutes of cardio but I had to break it down into 15 minutes on the elipitcal and 15 minutes walking on the treadmil. Also did about 125 sit-ups with Jess. The gym itself was okay in that it had 2 elipitcals, 2 treadmills and some bikes but it only had 3 multi-weight lifting machines. And they didn't have a water fountain for stupid people like me who forgot their water bottles. Anyway, after that we went back to our room and Mom made us some eggs for breakfast and then we went to lay out by the pool.

That was a nice feature of the place. They had a main pool by the main lobby where people were suppose to go with their kids but had smaller pools and spas for every 3 buildings. For the most part, it was like we had a private pool. We set out stuff out by the spa so we could watch our unlocked room but shortly after, we needed to cool off and moved into the pool. We played some rounds of Taboo while we were in there. Then around 3, Jess and I went with Mom and Dad to take a tour of a model house that they were considering buying. Justin didn't come because they took him earlier. I won't go into details of the house because Mom and Dad decided against it. Then Jess took me to Palm Springs for the first part of my birthday present.

She took me a spa where we were going to go through the spa treatment and get massages. It was my first time at a spa but Jess had been there before. The spa treatment consisted of 5 rooms with water breaks between the first 4. First there was the steam room which was wet heat at 140 degrees according to our little card. It felt like we were in there for 10 minutes but my guess is that we were in there for shorter. Next was the sauna which was dry heat at 160 degrees according to our card (although the guage in there was closer to 200 o_O). Then we went into the aromatherapy room which was also dry heat but at 105 degrees but it also had Eucalyptus scent in there too. I felt like it was really clearing the sinues. Too bad Mom didn't join us for that room. After that we took a mineral bath which was relaxing. At first the water was hot but cold water was being added. I tried to get some hot water back but I couldn't get it. *shrug* it was still warm and nice. Once we were done with that, it was about 5 and our message appointment were for 5:30 so we went into the tranquility room for half an hour. That was just a quite room where you lie down and relax. We put pad over our eyes that we first soaked in ice water. That felt weird at first because it was felt like it was stinging my eyes but then it relaxed my eyes. I had trouble relaxing in there though. It was very quiet so everytime there was a noise, it scared me. We stayed there until our massagists (is that a word?) came and got us. My massagist's name was Adele. We had Swedish massages. I had gotten a professional massage once before and this one different. Still relaxing but it wasn't quite as deep (then again, what do I know? I fell asleep during the first one). But she also rubbed my arms and legs some more. After that, Jess and I showered and then went back to the hotel to pamper ourselves up for our nice night out to dinner and for the kids to go out clubbing/to bars.

After I finished getting ready, I was feeling a bit uneasy but I wrote it off to being hungry and not drinking enough water so I drank some more water. By the time we got to Roy's, the restaurant, I was feeling queasy and made a couple trips to the bathroom just in case while we were waiting for our table. My family convinced me that we should leave as I wasn't feeling well and we rescheduled our reservation for Sunday night. On the way back, the rest of the family looked for restaurants that we could get take out from so we could eat back at the hotel. We were going through the shopping center near our hotel and were just starting to go back to the hotel when I told my dad to pull over and threw up the water I had drunken. Three times. At least I puked in the sand and didn't get any on my nice outfit except for some sand splatter on my shoes. Basically, I got dehydrated and then drank too much water too fast. I felt better after throwing up but we went back to the hotel anyway and the rest of the family ordered from Elephant Bar. Mom and Dad went to go get it and the kids played Uno while waiting. Jess won four times in a row, it was crazy. Then Mom and Dad came back with the food and they ate and I attempted to eat a bagel but I wasn't too hungry and only managed to eat most of a half. Then we just watched TV.


Sunday:Mom and Jess went to the gym which I declined not wanting to over exert myself again and just plaing not wanting to. Instead, I went and sat out by the pool but put most of myself under an umbrella. Once they got back, Mom made us pancakes. Then we all hung out by the pool and played some Taboo while we were out there. Then Mom, Dad and Justin went to look at some other house they were considering but missed out on or something. Jess and I stayed outside but I made sure to stay under an umbrella. While out there, I finished my book which made me happy. We left when a Spanish speaking family showed up with their little boy. Then we got ready for our second attempt at dinner at Roy's. But before we left, Justin made some strawberry margaritas. We weren't able to really finish them (or at least I wasn't) because shortly after making them, we had to leave for the restaurant.

Roy's was very nice. They served Hawaiian food. I got the salmon which was very good. We also got the chocolate suffle(sp?) which Roy's is also known for. Very good, I just wish there wasn't so much rasberry sauce there to ruin it ;-). Per tratition, gifts were given after ordering our food. In addition to the spa and massage, Jess gave me a guide to restaurants, clubs and bars in LA. "It's like a Zaggat for the 21-year-olds" was how she described it to my dad. Justin and Tiffany gave me twenty-one 10 dollar bills. Mom and Dad gave me 500 dollars. After dinner, Mom handed out our gambling money for the casino. I got $250 and Jess and Justin got $100 each. Then we went to the nearst casino whose name I can't remember.

I started off slow by playing a 25? slot machine. Didn't win anything there naturally. I think I put a 20 in the machine and got a ticket for $17.25 (ticket system, a definite plus). Then I played 25? video poker. I had more fun with that but didn't do very well because I cashed out at $15. Then we met back up with Justin at the bar who was also playing video poker. I decided to try my hand at it again and put in another 20 (that machine didn't accept tickets). After a few hands, I got dealt 3 Jacks which I held and then got dealt a fourth. I went up to $40.25 and immediately cashed out. At that point, Jess was playing her hundred at a blackjack table so Dad and I went over to watch. I watched for a while to make sure I understood and asked my Dad some questions. After a bit, he left to look for Mom I think. I stayed a bit longer and then went to see if I could find my Dad before trying to sit at a table myself. Didn't find him right away so I went back to video poker. I had some good hands that time: I got dealt 2 full houses in a row. After a while, I was a little under $10 so I promised myself I would cash out if I got down to $5 or if I got back to $15. Except I kept hovering around $8. Probably because I tied some of the "double up" options that time and actually won a few. My parents found me again and I cashed out at $10.50. Then I went with my dad and cashed my two tickets in for cash and we went roaming for a $10 min bet blackjack table I could sit at. It took awhile to find one. In the process, we checked in on my sister who was doing very well. Finally, we found a table with an empty seat and I got to play. Dad joined for a little bit but he played at slightly higher risks than I did and started off with less money so he left a little earlier. I think I did pretty well for my first time out. I followed Jess' habit of putting the money you started with separate from the winnings so you know when to walk away at the break even point. We were suppose to meet up at 11:15 so around 11 Dad came back to collect me. it was nice, on my last hand I got blackjack and then left the table to cash out. I ended up walking away from the table with $130. So overall, I had a profit of $40.75, I was very proud of myself. We then went to collect Jess who was doing very well and whose table only changed very slightly over the hour and a half she was there. She ended up cashing out with $300. That made her very happy since she's going on a trip to Spain soon. Justin said he came out up $50. Mom and Dad both lost money. Then we went back to the hotel. Justin, Jess and I attempted to play some dominos but we couldn't really remember how to play the version we play with Mom and Dad so that kinda died quickly. We were tired anyway.


Monday: I had forgotten to set my alarm for latter so Jess and I woke up at 8. I actually had been in and out of sleeep for a few hours though. I had trouble going back to sleep so I just started to get ready and pack. Good thing too. Around 9:50, Dad came by saying that we had to be out of our rooms by 11. Justin and Jess had just gotten out of bed at that point so they hurried to get ready and pack. I helped Dad clear some of the communal things that we wanted to keep. Then we moved everything to Mom and Dad's room since they were able to get a late check out for their room. Then we checked out of there and went to IHOP for breakfast. During breakfast, Jess realized she didn't spot check the drawers in our room and asked Justin if he did when he went back to check the rooms (which were already being cleaned when he went). Unfortunately, he didn't check really check our room so Jess called the hotel after breakfast and it turns out she did leave something so we went back for it. Apparently she left like an entire drawer of undergarmets. Whoops. See, this is why I don't unpack unless I'm staying for over a week (and even then it's debatable). Our plan was to go to this outlet center but when we pulled in and saw all the traffic for the place, we quickly nixed that idea and decided to just head home. Jess dropped Justin off at his place and let us come up and get the grand tour since neither of us had been there yet. Very nice place, like a mini-house since it had 2 bedrooms. Then Jess dropped me off back at her place and she went to work and I went home.

I decided to clean out my car so I cleaned out all the trash and started to use the dustbuster to get the smaller crap and my hair but it wasn't working very well. So I pulled my car into the garage in place of Mom's car and used the regular vaccum. It took a while, but I got most of the little crap. In my car, I found 6?, my first parking pass for Valencia for this year (it was under the front passenger seat and I thought I had checked the whole car, whoops), and my house keys which I had no idea where I had placed them (they were in the armrest compartment). We were all going to go out to dinner as a family and have Tiffany join us but neither Jessica or Justin really wanted to and Mom felt like crap so Dad and I went out to Red Robin after stopping at Washington Mutual so I could deposit everything. We came back and I watched Law & Order until I went to sleep.


Today: Had a doctor's appointment in LA. Basically, everything was looking good except for my weight. I should be aiming to lose about 35 pounds. He said I should see a dietian/nutritionist. Since it's finally doctor-who-isn't-my-dad recommended, I actually have to do it. The person is probably going to recommend that I become anorexic ;-P. Mom and I then went to the market to get Jess some low-carb diet food or something. Then we came home and I packed. Then I went to Wells Fargo to put a good chunk of what was in my checking account into my savings account (half of a percent interest is better than no interest). Then I went to Van Nuys to see Dr. M and get a refill on my ritalin. Then I came back to SLO. And now to do research work.

Overall, a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend.