april showers and powers

dearest all-

so we've made it to the home stretch of my 7th first year of school! huzzah! and quite a first year it's been. but there's lots more this month, and suddenly it doesn't help that april is much shorter than march ("ask me about my 'march as the longest month in the world' theory!")

here's a brief list of things left on the old "to-do" list:

1) 2 data methods homeworks (this is the same class where, after spending about 10 days straight working on the first homework, having roughly 3 breakdowns, having my first second thought on heading back to school, i turned in a 20-page masterpiece. with much thanks to pretty much everyone i went to help for.)

2) 1 data methods take-home final

3) like about 3 GIS projects

4) like about 1 GIS paper

5) two finals

6) one dissertation proposal

7) one dissertation proposal presentation

and there's some things missing too. and did i mention this all gets done by 1 may 2007?
and why 1 may 2007? well... i'm going to the cayman islands! i'm going to the cayman islands!

as mentioned in this space, i mentioned that i "might be" going to the cayman islands the first week of may to do a little practice research. sound exciting? it is! here's the game plan: fly from texass to nyc on 2 may. do something there. on 3 may (5:45am!!! agh!) fly to cayman islands. do SCIENCE! until about 8 may. fly back to nyc. meet special co-traveler and head to france to start my summer vacation! yeah!

and that's not all! after hanging out with the clan in paris (sis-in-law better dr. carr is celebrating her birthday there that weekend!) and heading to a chateau for a wedding, we're shuffling north to ireland (where we may meet up with brother euge who is kicking off his summer research by going to london for some archiving...) and then it's back to france and then nyc. now beautiful co-traveler heads back home to st.croix where the good puppy rowan awaits and i kick around for a few more days in new england with the clan some more. i'm guessing some sailing and golf. when i finally get back to texass, may will be over and my summer work schedule will begin.

do i know what i'm doing this summer? no. am i heading to antigua? no idea. am i getting paid? yes!

so to boil it down, i've gone and condensed roughly 7 weeks of classwork into about 4 just so that i can sip lattes on the siene with my brother and his family, whisper sweet nothings and hold hands with the beautiful co-traveler along the left bank, kayak in the bordeaux region, go diving for "work" in the cayman islands, drink with brother euge in the homeland, and hang out with family and friends in new england (including a supposed memorial day party with slider and wonderful wife jenna r. of honolulu, hi). is this all a lot and a bit confusing? yes and yes! but i'm looking forward to it...

if you want postcards, now's the time to send me a quick note!

hugs and kisses-
goose

APRIL FOOL'S SHOUT-OUTS:

happy NFW!!! shout-out to T3 and his uber-awesome wife Joy S. of Jersey City, NJ! big news (and this considering that tough tyson won $50k on "millionaire" last month) is that he's moving to austin, texas (note the spelling difference between there and the rest of texass...) the pilot side of life will be based at the san antonio airport, but will live in austin so joy can work on her master's degree at UT. the college roommate side of life, and his roommate will finally have a reason to hit up austin, easily described by several people as "the only reason to go to texas". to say the least, i'm looking forward to seeing them (including this weekend while they house shop...)

happy B2B champs shout-out to Big Moe of St. Croix, VI. the UFlorida alum and huge gator fan was notably excited about the ncaa win over the weekend. based on how gadofful the games were, he might be the only one. i can't recall being so unexcited about a final four in a long time. though i am already looking forward to next year for usc. and maybe for the first time in 15 years (it has been that long, mr. harold miner...) usc basketball might have some swagger.

happy "go retire you blowhard!" shout-out to cbs analyst billy packer. though i have friends inside the sports journalism industry (including a few who are just now beginning to make the national scene...), i never get why the crappiest guys get the biggest events. i understand that when fox shows the world series, we need to have fox correspondents, but does it have to be joe buck and tim mccarver? same goes for cbs final four. billy packer is horrid. when will sports producers get that they should get some enthusiasm and excitement on the television that matches the excitement me and my friends have for the events. instead, we get vermin and self-promoters. solution? why not do an "american idol" style competition where we can vote for the best? i think that's fair and would drum up some publicity.

happy "welcome back spring time!" to all my fellow cubs fans! following the garbage that was the final four blow-outs, finally we can turn to the beautiful pasttime that is cubs baseball. and though they lost on opening day, they did win today and are still on pace for .500!!! which would be a godsend after last season's trainwreck. so, dear old dad, good dr. carr, bryan g., lech n., and stephen b., CUBS IN 2007!!!

happy "1st birthday and last one in erie, pa!" to little man atticus l. of aforementioned erie, pa. his pops, dear friend clayter l. is taking a job in florida, which means that they suffered through a full erie winter before leaving. the photos of said party were excellent and, between his and the nieces, it looks like all the cool kids are using blue frosting mudmasks this season!

and finally, if you want a good gift idea for your mom (and you should!) i can't recommend proflowers.com enough. now i know not all mom's are gardeners, and i know that i usually don't prescribe people to do anything, but the operation is class-act. my mom said the packaging was very classy and they actually (without any prompting from me) sent me a note on the day it was delivered so i could call home and win the brownie points while they were still hot from the oven!