My New Friend

That space heater that I bought for my office arrived today.  I had worn a sweater to work today and wasn't that cold but I gleefully marched my new purchase back to my cubicle and plugged it in to test it out.  Such joy!  Such pleasure!  My cube was instantly filled with warmth and I found myself happily plugging away at some data for the rest of the afternoon.  You don't notice how much being even slightly uncomfortable slows you down till the problem is removed.

This space heater is pretty awesome but I wish I'd believed the Amazon reviews when customers said it was loud.  I haven't tried listening for my heater from the cubicles near mine but when the heater is running on low I can't hear my co-workers conversations.  Now that I think about it, that might actually be a plus!

No Heat?

Received an e-mail this morning as I was about to head to my school research lab saying the building was without heat.  As its been a lovely week with temperatures not rising above freezing I decided that I had plenty that I could do from my home office - no need to be cold!

Today's Home To Do List:

• Finish a midterm
• Develop welding parameter matrix
• Work on research poster

Holiday Spirit

While Milwaukee finally had its first snow fall this past weekend it still doesn't feel like it's time for the holidays.  I'm not into it this year and getting my decorations out has been a chore.  Could be lack of sunlight, could be depression.

Even school doesn't have much in the way of decorations; just these things they stick in the planters.  Of course they're all covered by snow now.

I need to put up my tree.  Maybe that will help.

Oh, Snow

Hello snow, my old friend.  Today was the first snowfall in Milwaukee.  My parents up in the Twin Cities have already have three snowfalls this year - and not light dustings either.  I knew snow was coming but I'm glad it held off till the 1st of December.

There was snow on the ground earlier in the day but it was all gone by the time I left work at 5.  In honor of the occasion I put up some holiday decorations.   The extent of my decorations?  Penguin and snowflake window clings that cover one of the three windows in my apartment.  I do have a small tree but it's in the basement storage and it's scary down there!  I probably won't set that up till this weekend and besides, I have to clean the apartment first.

It's hard to believe that finals will be soon and the term will be over.

Thanksgiving & Its Perils

This past weekend was Thanksgiving, a holiday filled with food, family, and *ahem* Black Friday shopping.  Due to weather concern I spent my Thanksgiving in Milwaukee instead of with my family in Minnesota but I did make some traditional Thanksgiving fare (sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, toffee cookies, and dinner rolls) so I didn't completely miss out on the food portion of the holiday.

While I love shopping, I chickened out this year for participating in Black Friday.  It was very very cold outside!  The original plan was to hit the outlet mall at 10 PM Thursday night.  After a large temperature drop in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday I decided my plan was rotten and that I should just go shopping on Saturday instead.  Yes I could have gone out Friday still, and yes you can (for the most part) get all the same deals online that are to be had in stores, but I didn't really need anything to warrant the crazy shopping.  All I really need are more clothes to replace the ones that I've destroyed working in the lab.

Thanksgiving sure does have its perks.  It's on a Thursday which pretty much guarantees that one will have Friday off from work and maybe Wednesday as well.  When I was working on my bachelor's and master's degrees these days off meant nothing to me as I would have had final exams the week before and the whole week of Thanksgiving as a "break."  Now that I'm in the working world I just get Thursday and Friday off from work but as a graduate student at a big, semester schedule school I no longer have a break.  I had my microbiology class on Tuesday like normal, but my once-a-week Thursday class was moved to Tuesday to account for the day off.  There went my normal Tuesday afternoon work in the school lab time.

On a trimester schedule the week of Thanksgiving was nice because I didn't have to worry about anything school related.  No exams, no homework, and nothing upcoming!  Not so much now.

The peril of having a four day weekend is that now the likelihood that I'll have a lengthy to do list is high, and the likelihood of my accomplishing anything from that list is low.  Sigh.  Today I have a test in microbiology, my part of a grant proposal due, a meeting with my advisor, and some lab work that I've been putting off.  Today is going to be busy.

Darkness

It gets so dark so early these days.  It's hard to stay motivated when I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark.  Plus it's freezing (literally) outside and all I want to do is stay home on the couch with hot chocolate.  This was the view outside my lab on Tuesday at 4 PM.

It should not be this dark this early.  There is one more month ahead of me just like this until the winter solstice. I need to move closer to the equator.