The ol' ball and chain and I made it to Maine okay. When I picked up my car the mechanic recommended I get another transmission flush after driving it for a while, and also pointed out the reason why my car has been especially loud lately (wheel bearing needs replaced). I seriously considered selling my car after those things got fixed so I could cut my losses and replace it with another used (but Japanese this time) compact car, but Ryan vetoed that :( He's right, though, that with just having bought the house and with the wedding coming up, now's not a good time. Maybe the year after the wedding?

Today I made my first pie entirely from scratch- gooseberry! Ryan and I picked the berries from wild plants growing near a secluded beach. The crust turned out excellently, but most of the sugar inside the pie crystallized instead of turning into a gooey berry mixture. It still tasted pretty good, though.

For dinner, we had lobster- two per person and they were free gifts from one of the lobstermen that my adviser has connections with. They were to die for. Kitteh luvs lobstir. Nom nom nom!

My snails are doing very confusing things with their growth. Not a lack of difference between groups, but differences in totally weird directions. Bad snails!

Ryan and I are supposed to be in Po-town en route to Maine, but we're back at home. Halfway up on the Jersey turnpike my car started just revving instead of delivering power to the wheels when I pressed on the gas. It was quite unnerving as I realized I couldn't keep up with the flow of traffic and had to get over two lanes to pull over. Fortunately they have a very wide shoulder. We opened the hood and the coolant cap was off (I had just got my oil changed that morning and bet they failed to put it back on). The engine felt hot, but the coolant compartment was still full. We let the engine cool for a few minutes, then tried driving again with the same problem. We were a mile from an exit so I chugged along the shoulder at 15 mph. We found a garage not too far from the turnpike.

Since it seemed like a transmission problem, yet there was the open coolant cap, it was somewhat confusing. Normally those things are not linked. I was also expecting the worst- transmission problems are expensive. They had a look at it and figured it out: apparently the transmission fluid line runs through the radiator to cool the fluid. They are supposed to be two separate circuits, though. Somehow my radiator busted such that the coolant and transmission fluid started intermingling. And as everyone knows, mixing of fluids is how diseases get around.

So they estimated $600 for repairs and it won't be done until tomorrow. $600 actually doesn't sound that bad compared to "the worst" I had feared ($3000). We rented a car (actually a "God damn minivan") and drove home. We'll drive back the rental car and get the Neon tomorrow, then keep heading north. We're just pushing all our plans back a day, so we'll spend Saturday night in Po-town, then Sunday night in Bangor before getting to the island on Monday.

I don't know if the open coolant cap had to do with the busted radiator- probably. Don't suppose I have any legal grounds to sue Jiffy Lube. Sigh. I thought by getting an oil change before the trip I'd be doing my car a favor.

Rest assured, I check ICHC at least 5 times a day. I need to take more pictures of the kitties in hopes of one day getting them on there and scoring 5 burgers. And I totally am Sad Cookie Cat. I have no willpower when it comes to resisting baked goods, but then I feel totally guilty afterwards. In fact, last fall I bought cookies to bring to my seminar class, but then I ate half the package that morning, so I had to run to the convenience store at lunchtime to buy some Oreos to replace them.

Not only did we meet with the baker on Saturday, but Ryan registered for an August SCUBA class and bought his basic equipment. We decided on cake flavors (our cake: it has a flavors) and basic design, but I'm leaving decisions on the particular decorations until closer to the date, when the other decorative decisions have been made. I hope Ryan enjoys SCUBA. We're thinking Cozumel (best diving in the Caribbean) and Cancun for the honeymoon. I have no idea where the honeymoon money is coming from.

Speaking of money, I'm trying to revive a few of my old cheapskate habits to save up some extra wedding money. Cutting back on snacks, cost effective meals, cheap entertainment, etc. Then Ryan goes and exceeds the food budget by surprising me with a heart-shaped ultimate chocolate cake from the Wegmans by his work. It's hard to get mad at him, though, when there's a cake like that in the fridge. I miss Wegmans so much. The selection! The everyday low prices! The Wokery! Sigh. We tried Genuardi's over the weekend. It seems to be the best of the rest. It's actually the east coast version of Safeway (not that anyone other than Tessa probably knows what Safeway is). I figure that the Safeway execs were probably in a board meeting, trying to decide what to call their new chain on the east coast, then one of them said, "There's a lot of Italians over there. Let's name it something that sounds Italian!" Anyway, the selection was mediocre and the prices weren't as good as Wegmans, but it will have to do, unless Ryan starts shopping immediately after work. I wouldn't be there to enjoy it, though.

One of our hydrangeas is flowering. I should take a picture.

Ryan and I are headed to Maine this weekend. He's staying for a week. We're going to go hiking, mushroom hunting, biking, beachcombing, and sampling. For me it's a working vacation. For us it's a low cost vacation so we can honeymoon next year.

Me:

Your Score: Sad Cookie Cat

71% Affectionate, 48% Excitable, 57% Hungry

You are the classic Shakespearian tragedy of the lolcat universe. The sad story of a baking a cookie, succumbing to gluttony, and in turn consuming the very cookie that was to be offered. Bad grammar ensues.



To see all possible results, checka dis.

Ryan:

Your Score: Lion Warning Cat

67% Affectionate, 63% Excitable, 31% Hungry

You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.



To see all possible results, checka dis.

I bet lots of people are busy reading their HP books today. Me and Ryan? We're going to a cake tasting with a potential wedding cake baker. It is somewhat on the early side, but I have priorities! Mmmmm....cake! It's going to be tasty, awesome, and a little whimsical, but beyond that, no spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, despite never getting into the HP craze, I am a little curious if he gets killed off. Let me know in the comments. I can't trust one Google-searched spoiler source over another.

Beyond cake, not much in the way of weekend plans. Perhaps some home improvements.

Nope, still wanted to gnaw my arm off. The house is big enough to give myself some space, but the car isn't. The good news from the weekend is that Ryan finished his 100 miles in about 6 hours and his mom bought us a set of patio furniture as a housewarming present.

Back at school, trying to motivate myself to do school-like things...

I'm back in Jersey and sipping a mojito made with mint from our "garden." Ahhh. I worked like a madwoman on Tuesday to finish up in Maine, then drove down yesterday to surprise Ryan. He didn't think I was coming back until Monday. Sneaky me! I've been in a good mood the past couple days; driving 10 hours by myself didn't even seem that bad. Of course I was motivated to see how surprised Ryan would be. He was fairly surprised. He looked at me as if he had no idea who I was!

The kittens are still cute and Choco looks even bigger. Ryan's 100 mile bike ride is Sunday, and my future mother in law and brothers in law are coming down tonight and staying through Sunday. I'm actually slightly looking forward to their visit- this will be their first time seeing the house and the kittens, and I want to see their reactions. Hopefully the house is big enough that I'm not ready to gnaw my arm off by the end of their visit.

Oh, and Ryan was cleaning the bathroom today in preparation for the visitors, and Choco jumped into the toilet! So both the little ones have been "baptized." But again, it was clean water, so we can laugh it off. Normally we keep the lids down to keep them out, so it's rather surprising that both have snuck in.

Ryan took the kittens to the vet yesterday for their last round of shots. Choco weighed 4 lb 10 oz and Grem was 3 lb 8 oz. Choco is a little growing machine! And to think at the beginning of May he was only 1 lb 1 oz! In mid-August they're going in for their little snip-snips, if you know what I mean (shhhh, don't tell them!).

Those painted snails that I showed you? They grew twice as fast on the "seaweed washed ashore" area as compared to a beach that doesn't get much washed up. Helloooooo results! This was an awesome thing to find so early on. To be honest, after a whole school year of planning my dissertation around this topic, I was beginning to worry that maybe the extra seaweed was irrelevant. But no! Science, Nature, here we come! Ok, maybe not. Ecology would be a reach, but the specific marine bio journals would be easy to get this into.

My advisor said today that even if I stopped collecting data now, he'd consider my summer a success. Score! I'm only halfway through my Maine time for the summer. Unless I somehow lose all my data, I'm golden! (knock on wood)

Know what else I discovered today? If you have published articles, you can submit them each as a chapter of your thesis in lieu of writing thesis chapters! I think it is even possible to just submit a stack of journal articles if you had 5-6 good ones, and not have any "thesis" written. This is only in the past decade or so, but the trend is more in that direction. I doubt I'd have enough articles to let them stand alone, but it's nice to know that I don't have to write a several hundred page thesis if I get my act together and publish some papers.

I love love love the ocean: the salty sea air, the view for miles, the weird looking creatures. Why'd it take until I was 22 years old to figure out I should be a marine biologist? Duh! I remind me of the Seinfeld episode where George pretends to be a marine biologist. I even find golf balls!

It's the Fourth and I'm not at a themed birthday party! Sound the trumpets! Hehe, with this Maine thing I might be off the hook for a couple years. Ryan got out of it this year because his day off work is in the middle of the week.

For the Fourth I went to the beach. And the third, and the fifth, and the sixth, seventh, eighth... I worked during the day and then there was a public pig roast/potluck in the evening. Word was that there would be fireworks when it got dark (which would be about now), but it was getting boring after the food was gone because I only knew a couple people.

I believe I failed to note my 4 year blogiversary, which was last Sunday. Happy blogiversary to me, happy blogiversary to me, happy blogiversary dear Cat, happy blogiversary to me!

It makes me sad that so many blogs die out. I may bore you to tears, but I promise my blabber will go on until...well...a long time. I wouldn't go so far as "til death do we part," but how about for now I set a "short" term goal of six more years, to make it an even decade?

Hmm, would marriage constitute "Chapter Four"? I don't expect it to be all that different than living together. I think Chapter Four will have to wait until I'm out of school.

Speaking of marriage, I'm not sure what I want to do with my name. Options:
Cathar1ne El1zabeth H0ffman (unchanged)
Cathar1ne El1zabeth Dickers0n (traditional last name change)
Cathar1ne H0ffman Dickers0n (unhypenated: option to use either)

I have many conflicting thoughts on the subject:
1. I've gotten quite accustomed to it the way it is
2. It's long enough as it is with a 6 letter, 2 syllable last name
3. "Cat D1ckerson" is too many syllables
4. I've always been of the women's lib sort that don't think it's quite fair that the woman is the one who "has to" change
5. Then again, it would be nice to disassociate myself from my birth family as much as possible
6. If I didn't change it at all, I wouldn't have to mess with any paperwork (lazy)

At the moment, I'm actually leaning toward CED. Ryan thinks CHD is silly, like riding the fence instead of choosing a side. If it were as simple as "choosing a side," it'd definitely be CED, but it's weird once you actually think of something as immutable as your name being different than you've known it all your life.

Back in Maine. I figure I'll spend about 2.5 weeks this trip (rather than staying up here til August and just having Ryan come up for a week. It's still gorgeous, though. Not too hot and not humid. I went out at low tide this morning to check on my experiment. I'm going to leave it one more week before taking it down and measuring the snails' growth. I need to set up another experiment or two during this trip so it can run for a month or so.

Word from home is that Gremlin jumped into the toilet last night while it was flushing, then promptly jumped out. Luckily it was the clean water part of the flush. Silly Grem.

The other excitement lately is that I found 21 (vingt-et-un!) golf balls on the beach this morning. I have found one or two previous days, but must have happened upon someone's driving range. I've been collecting them and maybe will buy a cheap driver at goodwill to send them back where I found them.