dream garden

Woo hoo! I will officially have my own garden plot in the Squirrel Brand Community Garden this year! I am already dreaming of the gorgeous flowers and scrumptious vegetables and fragrant herbs I will grow! I fear that I will choose too many things to fit in the plot, but I guess 10'x10' is actually pretty big. I started browsing through the Burpee.com website for some inspiration, and possibly to make a list for ordering seeds. Marigolds would be easy to grow, but they don't look great in vases, and seem rather common. I grew a bunch of zinnias last year, which bloomed like crazy, so I'm still zinnia-ed out. How about asters? Or cosmos? Maybe geraniums? I really have no idea here, to be honest. I'm so inspired by the flower arrangements I see on the Saipua blog, but I don't know what anything's called or if it will grow in the Boston summer. At least I will hopefully be able to grow some zucchini this year!

Well, I have a Vokabeltest in German class tomorrow morning, so I should probably study. !

a girl can never have too many earrings

I painted my fingernails dark gray, a shiny pewter, over the weekend. I usually never paint my nails because it takes no time to chip and look horrible. And it's been more than a decade since I painted my nails anything but a pink-related hue. But for some reason I am loving this steel gray! I went shopping today, and I always touch all the clothes, partially to feel the texture and weight, and partially to see how it looks next to my skin tone. And today I was like, oooh, this looks good with my nails! Haha... but this nail color will only last a week, probably, and the clothes have to match me for much longer. Anyway, I am beyond excited because I found this j.crew dress that looked similar to one I was drooling over at their website. I thought I would try it on, just to see how it looked. But it's so awesome I had to buy it! It's stretchy with a full, swingy skirt, and a more fitted stretchy strapless top. And it's a dark turquoise - I cannot resist that color. Now I really can't wait for spring!

Oh, and I also bought two pairs of earrings. Dangly, of course.

I had a couple hockey games over the weekend with the club team, which were fun even though we lost. Northeastern really has a good team. I got my skates sharpened just before the second game, and man it made such a difference in being able to skate faster! It was exhilarating.

I managed to scrub off that gross hockey smell in time for a cozy v-day dinner with James, which we cooked at home. We started with a Raspberry and Almond Salad, followed by Broiled Tilapia with Thai Coconut-Curry Sauce, and finishing with two most delicious Molten Mocha Cakes. Man, we are good.

excited and terrified

Spring semester starts tomorrow! I can't believe IAP is already over. I'm hoping that my research momentum from IAP will carry me straight into a productive spring full of brilliant results. (Right...) I'm officially done with technical classes, so I'm stoked to really get some things done on the research front. I had my first phd committee meeting last week, and it went pretty smoothly, so I feel great about actually finishing someday. I put together a slide for the meeting with a general timeline for the rest of my phd, and it actually scared me a bit to see it laid out like that, with a projected ending. Spring 2010, baby!

The last two weekends in a row, my club hockey team has had games cancelled due to our opponents not being able to field enough skaters for a game. Totally lame! I get really excited for games, and it is so not cool to cancel on us last minute! I hope we can round up a good showing for our away game at Bates College next weekend, because I don't think I can handle another cancellation now! I need my hockey fix!

Sometimes I feel like my life is a series of half-finished projects. For example, today James got some birdseed so we could make a bird feeder for the back porch, and we picked out a good milk jug to be the vessel, but I still have not cut a hole in it or attached strings. I have been working on this gray scarf for months now, and it is still 10 inches too short. I have finally cut out all the squares that will comprise my queen-size duvet cover, but I have yet to actually sew them together. It's been months since I bought the fabric. I wonder if the only project I'm capable of starting and finishing in a reasonable period of time is Making And Eating A Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Man, I am really good at that one.