Unconnected
There’s a dog in my apartment complex who looks a lot like Samson, but with shorter hair and a slimmer body. Her name is Phoenix.
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John got me flowers the other day, and at first I didn’t realize they were sunflowers because half of them were red with purple leaves. The dye in them turns the water purple, but since they’re in a green vase it just looks brown, which is a shame. They almost exactly match the flowers in the painting above my sofa.
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The short version of the transcript story: I submitted a transcript for my Houston Community College summer courses in the middle of last semester. UH received it November 8th. Every time I call, they say it’s still processing and they have no idea when it’ll be done. One guy I talked to said it usually takes six to eight weeks.* When I pointed out they’d had my transcript for eleven weeks, he transferred me to someone else, who cc’d me on an email to a “counselor” that said the counselor would contact me within 72 hours. That was Tuesday. No contact yet.
My graduation application, due February 8, will not be approved unless I have a degree plan on file. I can’t file a degree plan (I’ve been trying since last semester) until these credits show up in my records. Rawr.
* Um, why? These courses are *designed* to have direct, uncontested UH equivalents. I know you probably see thousands of transcripts every semester, but seriously, a monkey could process the HCC ones.
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I went to the Houston Auto Show with my dad yesterday. (My parents are buying me a new car when I graduate. I didn’t ask for or expect one, but I won’t put up too much of a fight.) There were many cars there. Several. By the end they all started to look the same, really.
The default plan is to get another Altima since I’ve been very pleased with the one I have and the new version is quite a nice car, but we checked out a few alternatives*. I was impressed with the Volkswagens, the Jetta and the Rabbit. They were nicely designed inside and out, got decent gas mileage, and holy pikachu you could fit an orchestra in the Jetta’s capacious trunk.
I was surprised to find that I also liked the Mitsubishi Lancer, which I’d never heard of, and the Mazda 3. The hybrids, which I’d had high hopes for, left me cold, at least as far as design and comfort go. The Honda Insight’s interior looked cheap and tacky, and I couldn’t see out the back of the Toyota Prius, but the Prius does pack 48 city miles into every gallon.
We stopped by to visit the Mini Coopers and Volkswagen Beetles, of course, but just for giggles. They’re not at all practical (I plan on keeping my new car for a least a decade, during most of which I won’t be a single college student), so I’ll have to wait until I’m older and can afford a little just-for-fun car. Someday.
* By this I mean we spent two and half hours walking around the Reliant Center.
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And the Mixed Metaphor of the Week Award goes to . . .
[via IM, slightly edited for clarity]
John: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/obesity.map/
Me: that’s dramatic
John: yeah, it is. Honestly though, whenever you walk around you see fat people everywhere.
Me: woo, wtg colorado
Me: who’da thunk that hiking up and down mountains keeps you slim?
John: haha, yeah, its like an oasis in a sea of fat people.
John: wait, that made no sense at all. An oasis in the middle of a sea?
Me: i’m totally blogging that
Though you do hear of an “island oasis” sometimes, and there could exist an oasis in a salty sea if it were a good source of delicious fresh water. I’m just saying.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Oooh cars. I had an old Jetta and had looked into getting a rabbit but instead got a Mazda 3. You can look at it this weekend. I love it except for how quickly the windshield got chipped…darn houston highways.