Another good day...and it's almost Friday! AHHH!!!

To start things off, Karl and I finally got to see the A's win a game in person last night. Every other game we've been to this season they have lost (usually pretty badly), and last night they went into the ninth inning with a 1-0 lead...and then Karl's favorite pitcher, Brad Ziegler, gave up two runs to the Angels. At that point we were certain that we were the A's "bad luck charms" and they would lose it. Fortunately the Angels' star closer, Francisco Rodriguez, blew the lead and the A's won 3-2 with a very exciting bottom of the ninth. Here are a few photos from the game, which was most likely our last A's game of the season (note, if you click on any of these pictures you can see a much larger, higher-resolution image):

Jered Weaver pitching for the Angels.

Karl enjoying the game...it was pretty cold outside!


The few fans that were there (look at all the empty seats!) went nuts when the A's won!

Now, here are a few reasons why today was so great...

1) I won an internal competition among the faculty at Saint Mary's - this competition was for the chance to apply for a national research grant. Every academic institution is only allowed two applicants for this grant, which meant that I had to write my grant proposal and cross my fingers that the dean selected it since he could only select two from all of the faculty members who applied...and he did select mine! So I will now work with the grants officer to make sure that it is as complete as possible before I submit it. If I get this grant it would give me a stipend to conduct research in the summer. I have quickly realized that getting research done at Saint Mary's is near impossible during the school year, though I'm still trying to accomplish this task! Having some funds to work on research full-time during the summer would be a dream come true.

2) Karl surprised me with some beautiful flowers when I got home this evening! When we lived in Bloomington he used to do this on a pretty regular basis, but since we've lived here I haven't received any flowers...until today! They are beautiful and they smell soooo good. They are sitting next tome right now and the sweet aroma puts a smile on my face. :)

The beautiful flowers...and yes, that's the pic of Hillary and me to the left. ;)

3) The oven works and today I used it for the first time! I baked a frozen pizza at lunch today (not the most gourmet food, I know, but it has been sitting in our freezer for two months and it was time to cook the darn thing!), and then tonight I made some blueberry muffins. We have a convection oven, which means that the food is more evenly baked. I didn't understand why my mom was so nuts over her new convection oven until I used ours today. The pizza cooked perfectly - no burnt crust or bottom...every part of it was cooked completely evenly and it was soooo good. Same with the muffins! This weekend I'm going to have to buy a lot of things to bake in the oven when we go to the grocery store.

Yummmm!

4) There is a TV show that I really love... and up until this point I haven't admitted it to anyone but Karl and a few friends. The TV show is called "Greek" and it's on the ABC Family Channel. As someone who was in a sorority, I know that there are a lot of really negative and unrealistic depictions of "Greeks" out there, which bothers me a lot. People think they know what it's like and they really don't, or they stereotype all of those who were ever in a sorority or fraternity, while those of us who were are actually really normal people. This show not only depicts the Greek Community more accurately than many other shows/movies I've seen, but it also depicts today's undergraduate college life in general very accurately. If you're wondering what is really on the minds of college students, their worries, issues, etc., or what they do in their free time, watch this show. Down to the sorority "candle pass", this show's writers have clearly done their homework and understand the inner-workings and issues of those in the Greek community as well as undergraduate community as a whole. I am always embarrassed to admit that I actually watch it because I'm clearly past the age of the show's target demographic, but I think part of the reason I like it is because it reminds me so much of my undergraduate experience. Karl would never admit it on here but even he likes it! He tries to act like he's not watching it but I'll sneak peeks and see that he's really paying attention, or he'll have his headphones on but still laugh at the funny parts of the show....he can't fool me! ;)

One last thing - if you haven't yet done so, be sure to check out Karl's Blog for a video he took on the BART last night when we came home from the baseball game. These two complete strangers challenged each other to what they called a "One Legged Challenge", in which they had to balance on one leg when the train took off and whoever put his other foot down first lost. These guys were hilarious and it was definitely the best entertainment I've ever seen on a train. They proceeded to do it tournament-style, and played for best out of three. I took the train to/from work every single day when I lived in Chicago (err....minus a few mornings or evenings when I felt lazy and shelled out about $12 for a cab) and I can honestly say I've never seen people do this or anything like this. The train would be a whole lot more fun if they did....

Tomorrow is FRIDAY! Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!!!!