Spontaneous Non-Combustion

Nothing will get you out of bed at 2:12 AM faster than the smoke detectors going off. Holy cow. There's a smoke detector in every room, and they are linked to one another, so if the sound from one of them is ear-splitting, you can only imagine how lovely it is when the other nine chime in.

My first thought was to step into the hall to determine if I could smell smoke. Nope, not from my doorway. My bedroom is at the corner of an L-shaped house, but before I could set out in one direction or the other to investigate, the alarm stopped.

Sadly, the alarms in this house have a reputation for crying wolf, so while my gut reaction was to jump out of bed, my first conscious thought was "not again!!" No fire this time. Just another false alarm. In the middle of the night. Again. The false alarms are almost always in the middle of the night. After all, it would be so boring for a spontaneous fire drill to happen at 10 in the morning or during dinner when everyone is awake already.

It took about a half an hour before my heart decelerated to a point where I could think about falling back asleep. It sure felt early when the alarm clock went off at seven. I am really hoping there is not going to be a repeat performance.

Thankful Thursday: Carpool

One of the best things about yesterday's orientation meetings was getting to meet a few of the people who are starting the same program as me. It turns out that one of them actually lives in the same small town I do, which is almost unbelievable, especially considering that home is 50 miles from campus. What makes this more unbelievable is that we are registered for two of the same classes, and have already discussed the possibility of carpooling one day a week. An auspicious meeting to be sure. Saving 100 miles (and three gallons of gas) every other week is definitely something to be thankful for.

What a Day

Long.
Good.
Informative.
Overwhelming.
Invigorating.
Daunting.
Challenging.
Helpful.
Exciting.
Successful.
Expensive.
Detailed.
New.
Familiar.

[Orientation today. Not the first day of school, but kind of felt like it. It was all of the above and more. Tons of information that is both helpful and a foreshadow of the big challenge that is about to begin. College textbooks that cost more than my new iPod. (Holy $$$!!!) More decisions to consider about the specifics of my program. Trying to get my head around the critical factors with limited understanding. Suggestions for numerous things to do, associations to join, departments to visit right away to maximize the grad school experience. Did I mention "Overwhelming"?]

Over.
And just beginning.

Great Gift Wrap Idea

If there is one thing in this world I will probably never run out of, it is greeting cards and scrapbook paper. I don't know what possesses me when I am in the stationery section of the store, I am seduced by the beautiful color graphics and colors, and usually something comes home with me. On my last trip, I managed to bring home only four sheets of scrapbook paper, but they are for a specific project, I promise.

So anyway, I have all this scrapbook paper and I've been using it up quite a lot lately by re-purposing it into gift wrap. A 12x12 sheet is the perfect size to wrap a small gift, and these gifts always get comments about how pretty they are. So I thought I'd share my idea just in case there are any other paper-holics out there.

The trick is to place your item diagonally on the scrapbook paper, and fold each corner over on the back.

Then I take a strip of a contrasting paper to make a band around the package, add an embellishment or gift tag, and it's done. For this one, I used paper punches and layered the shapes, drawing the first letter of the recipient's name on the top one, monogram style. This little package contains a men's t-shirt, carefully folded. Since it's for a guy, it's rather masculine, but the gifts I've wrapped for girlfriends are much prettier.

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8/29/08

I just did another one of these, and it falls into the cutesy category, so I thought I'd add it.

My Summer Olympics: Results

The closing ceremonies are over, and the Summer Olympics are done for four more years. One of my favorite bloggers threw out a challenge to readers to create their own Olympic events. I took full advantage of the opportunity to set some goals, and here are the results!

Event: GIFT-MAKING CRAFTATHON

Results: GOLD
I made a substitution on one project, but actually completed at least 10 instead of the original 9.

Event: HEALTHY LIVING MARATHON

Results: BRONZE
A bronze in this event represented maintaining my normal level of exercise and activity. That bum knee I've had kept me from stretching to reach a higher level. There's always 2012!