I'll put up a ton of pictures in my Facebook album, but here's a selection of representative photos from last week's trip to Ireland.

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Transformers 2 was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I'm going to break out all the cliches here and say that not only do I feel dumber for having watched it, but I want my 2 1/2 hours back.

Complaints in bulleted form!

• Seriously, robot testicles. Along with numerous other testicle jokes.
  
• The camera's loving caress of every nubile, sweat-glistening inch of Megan Fox's skin. Enough already!
  
• There were several "oops" moments, including a scene with a 24-style time stamp of 22:31, shot in full daylight. Also a bandage miraculously appearing on Shia LeBuuuuuuuff's hand after getting dropped in the middle of the desert with no gear.
  
• Gag-inducing tender moments between the main character and either his Dad or hottie girlfriend.
  

I got an A in my summer class: Coastal Environments of Massachusetts. I have 2 classes left until I get my bachelor's degree, and the rest of the summer off.

I rejoined the Boston Sports Club in my office building yesterday. After a night out with my friend Melissa this week (who recently trained for a triathlon while teaching seventh grade and finishing her Master's degree at night), I felt like I've been making too many excuses to avoid working out. I can make the time if I want to.

So, this morning I had my first personal training session. There was a really good introductory deal of 3 hours of personal training for $30, so I signed up for it when I started my membership. I think the personal training will be useful, but I despise the push at the end for me to spend more money. Given the introductory price, when the trainer tried to sell me a 5-pack of sessions, I thought it might be something like $200. Nope, $430. That's $86 PER HOUR. Uh, no thanks.

The other thing I had forgotten I don't like about the gym is that people seem to think I am a zoo exhibit. I constantly get stared at, both on the gym floor, and even more fun, in the locker room. I'm still going to go, but people, seriously: get some fucking manners.

This week's theme is SAND. I haven't had much time to go out and take new photos, so I scanned some old ones from the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado. The scan quality's not that great; I did it at CVS.

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That sounds like some kind of hippie tea. I had some Panama La Florentina coffee from Starbucks this morning and now I am a caffeinated super-efficient machine.

I read Just After Sunset by Stephen King recently. I usually enjoy his short story collections very much. This one did not contain a lot of explicit horror. I think King is starting to feel his encroaching mortality as several of the stories were about the afterlife. "N." was very Lovecraftian, and was probably my favorite. "Gingerbread Girl" and "A Very Tight Place" were typical King nail-biters. I always enjoy seeing how he will get his protagonists out of the crises he creates for them. Overall I don't think the collection had the same impact that Everything's Eventual possessed, but it was still a good read.

I took Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, with me to Florida. I'd had it for some time but never read it. that happens frequently; I buy books faster than I can read them. My friend Melissa recently read it and raved about it, so I dug it out. This book was exceptionally good. The writing was poetic, with dreamy descriptions of Detroit in the 1920's. Eugenides' portrayal of adolescent alienation was so accurate; much of what Calliope, the main character, went through emotionally, I remember feeling myself at 13 or 14. He also wrote The Virgin Suicides, so I'll likely be picking that up for my next read.

I had a dream last night that I won four scholarships for varying amounts of money and was very pleased about it, although I tried to act modest in front of everyone else.

Hey y'all! My company, athenahealth, is probably one of the only companies in Boston still expanding. Check out this list of available positions below and send me your resume if interested:

Sr. Mgr. Mktg. and Analytics
Director of Process Innovation
EDI Program Mgr.
Sr. Network Engineer
Software Architect
Dir. Enterprise Accounts
Sr. Account Managers

Wore high heels.
Got my Night Elf Druid to level 37 in World of Warcraft.
Purchased a book called Beaches and Coasts (which in my mind is called Bitches and Ghosts) for my summer class.
Visited the ICA gift shop.
Reorganized the bedroom closet.
Drew on the driveway with chalk.

On Friday night we christened the grill for the season by making sausages, corn, and vegetable skewers. The corn was really easy and is now my favorite grill food. Sorry, meat!

On Saturday we go up early just because and drove to Westford for a greyhound event. We were hoping to by some new collars and pet other people's greyhounds, but the place was filled with mosquitoes and cranky old people. We didn't stay very long, but the drive was worth it since that is when we saw the baby geese.

Somewhere in between that and the birthday party, I cleaned the bathroom and made cupcakes. The party turned out to be a blast! Thanks to everyone who came, brought stuff, danced with me, or had fun. option686 is very happy with his gift of feet tattoos. I'll make sure he posts some pictures after the appointment.

Yesterday we got up very late and I made bacon and eggs. Then we played WoW all day. Britt seems pretty happy that I've been playing with him. We used to play Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath on Playstation 2, but that was a while ago. It's fun to play games together.

I had my camera with me this morning on the way to the Greyhound adoption reunion, when Britt pointed out a family of goslings very close to our car. We stopped so I could take some pictures:

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I'm picking out snapshots again for snapshot_hunter. The theme this week is "New". Here are the ones I've picked out:

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Ecology: A
Intro to Computer Science: A

I don't understand why people put their email address in their email signatures. I have an email from you--therefore I know your email address!

I recently joined the snapshot_hunter community, where a theme is posted every week, and the members vote on which one is best. My first entry got a rousing zero votes, so I'm hoping to do better this week. I have a few options as to what to post and I'd like your opinion.

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I just took an antihistamine for the crazy itchy spot I have on my arm, and now I want to go back to sleep. I don't understand why this keeps happening. My immune system needs to cool it.

I think I'm going to sign up for this

( Legitimate Business Opportunity )

So, I don't know a lot about where to get clothes; hence, my clothes all come from the same place. So when NPR mentioned that there was a Top Shop opening in NYC and it was a huge event, blah, blah, I thought I would take a look at their web site. Of course, it's a bunch of hipster crap that I HOPE no one would ever wear.

Things I will never wear:

Am I Tawny Kitaen?


It calls this one "Ghost Face" but I think I would look like the Kool-Aid Man wearing it:


NO. BAD.

I bought a birdwatching book a few weeks ago and haven't had time to use it yet. I have a goal for this weekend of at least going down to the cove once to spy on birds. I wonder if I should get some binoculars. I will definitely bring the camera. option686 and I saw a cardinal at the park on Tuesday.

I bought some $9 and $12 shirts at Threadless this week. Two have a science theme and once has a unicorn! Britt doesn't like that one.

I'm taking Monday off from work in case I don't finish my term paper. If I do finish it I'll probably need some relaxation time, so I'll be goofing off all day. I don't have class that night thanks to Patriot's Day! I love Massachusetts.

Still to do:

-Write up post-lab for environmental ecology
-Complete pre-lab assignment for this week
-Finish web presentation for CS101 and harass my partner into doing her part
-Write 10-page paper on intestinal bacteria
-Study for finals
-Sleep