Protists, Apples, and Football

The ice is melting and the people are rejoicing- no joke. The past two weeks have been going really well. I'm still really busy with homework and studying, but it seems better than last semester because I can anticipate the work load better and stay ahead of it. I have already had two tests and an art project due, and this week I will have a biology exam.

My art project was a still-life in graphite pencils of some lilies, leaves, and porcelain pot. With the hours in and out of class, I spent around 17 hours on the drawing. It wasn't like I was being pokey! In fact, I was one of the first ones done with the project. Our teacher is just very particular. When I decided what I wanted to draw off of the display our teacher had placed in the middle of the room, I thought organic shapes would give me some leniency, that I wouldn't have to have every little curve of the petal correct or the distance between two stems exact. I was wrong. It amazed me how I could spend an hour drawing a leaf, believing I had drawn it accurately before my teacher came by and within two seconds could point out a flaw. I shouldn't be complaining, though. This is going to make me a more critical drawer and able to create better pieces for my portfolio.

I was quite surprised this week when I found myself fascinated by prokaryotes and protists! My regular biology professor has been on a trip to Venezuela so his wife has actually been subbing in, and she is hilarious and awesome! She relates everything to real life either through an a weird belly button analogy of horizontal gene transfer or a quick look at how something like oomycetes caused the Irish potato famine which brought over a lot of immigrants which ended up changing the social/ethnic fabric of our nation. And it was all because of a protist. Crazy crazy. . .

Ahh, so besides school- I made some pretty sweet apple pies for an apple party (apple pie and the game apples to apples) last Saturday for the Anders house. It was a lot of fun, and people liked the pies. Sorry, Kelsey. I stole your idea. :p Instead of buying a sack of apples, I designated people from the house to collect them from the dining center over a week span. I had so many apples sitting on my desk with their sweet aroma tempting me while I worked at my computer.

This Sunday was the house Superbowl party. I borrowed a projector from the communications building so we could project the game on the wall in our kitchen/den, and everyone chipped in to bring some food for an array of classic American food- chips, chili, cookies, and pie. Don't worry, I brought some carrots and broccoli to expand the venue. haha

Have a happy Monday, and enjoy the Superbowl commercials!