110929 Stress, Grades, and EASY Recipes

Highlighted Cliffnotes for you TLDR's.


I've discovered I'm over-busy.
Full time work, full time school, part time dog mom and wife. Yep, wifery is now only part time, and I don't like that. Work used to be the place I got most school work done, when I only had 2-3 classes and could squeeze hw/study in between cars and on the Easy Day (Sunday), AND, if I was too burned out from a Hard Saturday to do much of anything on Sunday I didn't suffer too badly.

I'm suffering.

I was sick most of this month (allergies plus tired plus brain fried plus eating like crap 'cause we didn't have time to cook.... ). I'm walking proof that when I get poor sleep (6,6,10,8,10,5,8) and eat garbage, you feel like garbage. I actually don't know what day it is somedays. I'm not exaggerating. I also missed an online quiz for chem. I plum forgot. Ten points. Forgot.

I did do decent on my first midterms: 
-Chem's 79 was raised to an 88, due to some questions he didn't like. Need much more work.
-History of Civ, 103. Got them all right, including the extra credit. Needs less work. Ok, maybe not, she was unhappy so next test will be "identification of terms". Bleh. How can someone make ME tired of pre-1500s??
-Got a B- on my Biostats report. He was very clear that everyone who didn't have a title lost a whole letter grade. Oops.
-Biodiversity lecture, I got an 86. Really want to bring it up, I also really blame her weird life cycle. I KNOW the life cycle, but when I filled the chart out and then moved to the questions on it, the questions make it clear that she was putting things in a different way (rotating some of them a quarter turn clockwise, for example, which would make them in the wrong place at first glance.... won't know, she doesn't let you review them).
-Biodiv Lab, I got 38/35. Missed one, got the EC, and he gave everyone 2 points for "fuzzy photos". They weren't, and it makes me wonder if grades were low.
-Chem Lab, no practical. But I did drop my grade from an A (91) to a C (78) by missing that online quiz :( Should be able to bring it up simply by doing the rest (raise the average with more entries). I'm still upset though.

Pulled myself out a little bit this week, whipped up Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff (one night's dinner, one day's lunch) on Tuesday. We found time to run yesterday (1mi R, 0.5mi W, 0.5mi R, 2mi Wback), but ended with with Turkeyized-Hamburger Helper for dinner. Cooking for today through the weekend, and I remember now why I loved my toaster oven. The house isn't a bajillion degrees, but I broiled Greek Swordfish and am baking Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes! I also have Mexican Chicken in the crock pot. BAM! :P

So, trying to slam water and get stuff done. Three exams next week.
I'd blather more, but I'm busy! :D
Here's the recipes I'm using/adapting, btw.

Recipes below!

Oxymoron: Facebook Privacy settings....

Dear Diary, I'm so glad there's a place in the universe where my thoughts are safe. LJ brought critisism and spam, Myspace was pretty much all spam, FB sold our every move to marketers, Google stored our every click and tried to tailor our universe around what it felt matched those clicks, now... dear diary, there is only you.

Dear little sister: Your thoughts are only safe in your head. If you don't want your every thought public, keep them to youself. Love, every big brother that's ever stolen a diary and used it for humiliatory purposes. PS: No Johnny doesn't like you. I asked.

$179 vs $29. Yes, it's a real question. Glasses...

Hmm, I've worn the same pair of frames for 6 years. Change the lenses lazily (about every two, when I should do them every year). I pretty much only get them updated when taking them off and squinting seems to work better. Now, I didn't like these frames when I got them, they were a lopsided compromise, and I've been hunting around for new ones. I found a few I like, and even almost purchased a cute cheapy pair. However...

I ran into a pair the other day that I actually tried on twice. (Trust me, it's significant.)

But they cost WAY more than I've ever spent on a pair of glasses. (I'm cheap, too!)

I've hunted around online and found the only three places that sell the pair. Even the most expensive online store is less expensive than the walk-in glasses place. Then I worked out lens pricing.

Shop Online Cheapies.

TOTAL ~300 ~179 ~29

Frames. 178 99 10

AntiGlare- 60 30 5

Scratch-resist ?? 7 NA

UV-block ?? 7 NA, add $3 for clip on shades.

I stopped hunting shop prices, well, she stopped letting me hunt with "well we really need to see the frames and blah blah blah". Unless you're going to charge me an extra $5 for each square-micrometer, I'm betting those prices don't/shouldn't change. You just want me in the store so you can pressure-sell. Bite me.

Why I need those things above: 

-AntiGlare. Have astigmatism? Tried driving at night? LOOK AT THE PRETTY LIGHTS!!! It's like acid-light. Neat, and kind of relaxing if you don't focus on any light and give yourself a headache. Difficult to drive with.

-Scratch-resistant: Did I mention I've had these lenses two years? I'm not 'hard' on glasses, but I do WEAR them, take them off, drop them, stuff them in weird places when I forget my case... Oh, and my right lens has a centimeter long Temper-toothmark. Even scratch-resist can't solve everything.

-UV-Block. I like my retinas, thank you. And it's not a whole lot more to get a teensy bit of block for when it's too dark to wear shades.

The two pair I'm comparing pricewise are shown below. Sorry the pictures aren't me facing the same way in each instance. The Dexter photo is my in the digital "try it on" and the Sinister was taken in a hurry while trying to show off the super-cool purple/gold marbling that makes the arm look like purpley wood! I've included images of the frames in complimentary angles. The bottom pair are the cheapies that I like. The frontal-photo makes me think I should be wielding a crow-bar and spattered with alien blood, but the other photo shows that rectangles really aren't all that bad on me.

SO... The question goes,

Get another pair of glasses I can Live With, that I like better than the pair I'm currently wearing, cause Hey! I'll still be able to see!

or

Get the pair of glasses I think are super cool lookin'?

and

No, getting lenses for the pair I have isn't an option. It would actually cost me over $150 to "bring my own frames" to these damn glasses vendors. No, I haven't shopped around to heavily yet, 'cause I hate these frames. Really. I can't wait to donate them. They won't want them. 

If getting to choose the latter, how do I reconcile the price O_O I don't really waste a whole lot of money. Salsarita's once a month is about 8$; I haven't bought wine in a while; I don't have a gym membership or a game subscription; my birthday isn't until April; I've sold most of the stuff I can sell; Hmm....