The Special People Club

I love the people who inhabit the web. Try the videos on this site . Performance art at its finest.

1. The swans are back. For a couple of weeks a year, swans move into the small pond across from my house. A pair, even. They're huge, I tell you. Gi-normous. Folks in the neighbourhood bring their kids on walks and stop to feed them. Personally, I'd not let a kid within 10 feet of those monsters. They could take out a toddler in one swoop. And they stare. A lot. With a soul-less, dark gaze. ("Outlanders there.") And they're not really that graceful. Sure they float nicely and all, but when those necks are bending cleaning their feathers and reaching for food, they're downright freaky. I guess it's kind of like I live in their home and I'm seeing the belching/farting/no-makeup version of the supermodel, but to me they just seem kind ugly. No wonder Susan hates them so much. Oh. And at night they tuck their weird necks down under their wings and look like white floating bags of rubbish. It's time for them to move on. 2. I am sick. I have ...

This has to be a short entry because it's already 11 and I have a 630 date at the gym in the AM. I have officially survived my first week of grad school. I am exhausted. It was a 730 AM departure for school every day, arriving home after 11 every night with a big stack of reading still to do. I learned that Cranfield takes this "more work than you can possibly handle" thing seriously...as I believe I've mentioned, they assign us teams of six and then you work together to get all the reading and work done. They fully expect that you will not do everything yourself, and that you'll be learning to rely upon others to keep you updated with summaries. It is really hard to trust people you don't know to do work for you on something this major, and it is going to get worse...they anticipate that you will actually work on about half of what you get assessed on during the course of the programme. In fact, not only do we share all work amongst the people on our individ...

How's that for a cheesy title? Forgive my unoriginality. I am beyond dead tired. Can't even STAND how tired I am. It's all I can do to write, but while I was home catching up with my faithful readers I promised to pick up the blogging pace this year, so I'm posting in spite of the fact that I'd give big money to be in bed right now. Actually this is good for me. I have to make it until 1030 or I'll have gone to bed too early for sure. I am STILL totally messed up with the jetlag thing. I've been back a week, so it is NOT okay that I'm still wide awake from 2 - 4 AM each night. It's definitely taking it's toll. I have a low-grade headache, I have tea-sized bags under my eyes, and my concentration is crap. (So is my spelling, so please bear with me.) Last night I had a grand total of 3.5 hours of sleep. I could have gotten more but I had a 6AM date with my trainer and since I can't meet her next week due to school I felt I needed to keep it....

Umbrella shop on Oxford Street , originally uploaded by marimbaprune . There're some general England shots on flickr, too. Oh. I'm not a great photographer, so please excuse the amateur framing and lighting and slight blurs. I'll get better.

Thomas at 40 , originally uploaded by marimbaprune . I still have a free flickr account, so I am limited in my number of posts. I've added a sampling of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Tom's Birthday photos at flickr. When I have time and money to get a pro account I'll get them all up there. For now, though, you can at least get these from the site.

Rose and Tiara - mindy , originally uploaded by marimbaprune . The photos are in...link to MarimbaPrune, as listed by the photo...and you can see all the Rose and Tiara sittings from Tom's birthday.

It's 4:30 AM. I've been up since about three. All was well...sleeping like a baby...and then WHAM suddenly awake and tossing and turning. Came downstairs for a little telly and a snack...any insomniac will tell you a glass of milk and getting OUT of bed always make it easier to get back to sleep. So far, no luck. Finally gave in to check email, which turned into blog reading, proofing and catching a spelling error in my earlier entry, and now this. I hate this. Once you are awake, your mind starts racing. I've been thinking about my finances, my holiday, those coal miners, how cheerios were invented, window drafts, how you say Abramoff, punchlines for "How do you say Abramoff?," Ariel Sharon's stroke, Israeli politics as a whole, toenail polish and the impact nailgrowth has on a pedicure, Woody Allen, snow, cats, Tim's white Christmas tree, the emotional effects of the color red and the odd movements of butt-dancing...and that's just a little cross sec...

I am back from hols, and bloody England has given me a cold, grey welcome. I'm sitting in my sitting room under a duvet in yoga pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a fleece, and a stocking cap. I should probably turn up the heat, but I'm trying to conserve. It's drizzly-rainy out and it has been all day. In fact, when I went to lunch today I felt like it was dusk, not noon, such was the cloudy haze of the day. My flight itself was uneventful, though delayed. Luckily, I followed the advice of the airlines and arrived two hours in advance of my flight to check in, as my actual Minneapolis flight was delayed beyond the departure time of my second flight from Chicago. I was able to grab an earlier one that was delayed just slightly beyond my original departure time, so that worked well. Of course, one delay is always an indicator of others...and my Chicago flight was delayed an hour, as well. Spent more time enjoying the lovely K concourse (which I already knew well from my 5 hours ...