Catching Up

       This week in class I've just been trying to complete the work I missed last week when I went to Colorado. I'm (kind of) close to being done but I should probably come in during lunch or before school one day to work on it. I just keep hoping I can be super-efficient during class and get it all done. The stuff that we're doing on Scratch is not my favorite. It seems so formulaic. The commands are all already written so it seems like I'm not really involved in the process of telling the computer what to do. This also doesn't seem to have a real-life application, like HTML did. I can't make a webpage with Scratch. I can only make a little cat or a flying hippo draw a square or turn in circles.

     This weekend I competed in a regatta with my rowing team and I raced a four and quad. Both boats have four rowers but, in a quad, each rower has two oars and in a four, each rower has one oar. I won my first medals because we got 2nd place in both of my races. The regatta was on Saturday and it was a perfect rowing day: sunny but not hot with barely any wind. Saturday night, the Longhorns had a blowout game against Kansas, which just topped the day off perfectly.

     Yesterday, we carved pumpkins (mine is a Longhorn, believe it or not) in preparation for Halloween tonight. My friend and I are dressing up as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and yes, we are going trick-or-treating.

Colorado

     I'm in Colorado Springs this weekend visiting Colorado College. The surrounding area and the campus are absolutely gorgeous but the college wasn't my favorite. The people were not nearly as hospitable as the people at Guilford and the campus was more complicated. Despite that though, my dad and I have had a great time hiking some of the trails around here.

    Today we were planning to hike a trail by the Air Force Academy but, once we got there, we found out that the trail had been closed after Bin Laden was killed (not sure why). So we changed our plans and hiked up to this section of amazing rock formations called the Crags. Afterwards, we found a trail that offered some beautiful views of the city and the mountains. We could also see the Garden of the Gods, an group of rock formations that we visited yesterday.

    We are about to head to dinner at a sports bar where we can watch the Rangers in the World Series. Although, given that the score is 5-0 St. Louis right now, it isn't looking like a very good game.

    I'm hoping that I will be able to catch up on the work that I missed during class this week by working super-efficiently. We'll see how that goes!

Birthday Weekend

Yesterday was my 18th birthday and this weekend is filled birthday fun. : )
     Last night my mom agreed to try a new recipe for Broccoli and Mushroom Risotto. (She hates trying new recipes. It stresses her out.) It was absolutely delicious and I have leftovers for lunch today. Yum! After dinner, my sister and I set out to make a gluten-free chocolate cake. We had a few minor mishaps while cooking it but the major (read: hilarious) disaster came when my sister picked up the cake to put in the oven. The pan's removable bottom came out and batter spilled all over her and the floor. After quickly cleaning up/eating batter off the pan and spoons, we decided we had enough ingredients to make another cake. So we did and while it was baking, I opened presents. I got a new Swatch band because mine was broken and a bike rack for my new road bike. But best of all, my mom found Toobers and Zots. I used to play with the foam toys when I was five or six but they were given away in one of our family's purging efforts. I was sure no one sold them anymore but my mom found them and I had absolutely no idea. My dad got a picture of me opening them and the look on my face is priceless. Soon, the cake was done and by 11 PM, we were eating birthday cake.
       Tonight I am going to see Lion King in 3D with my family and my best friend after we eat at Maudie's, one of my favorite restaurants and tomorrow night I have birthday dinner at my grandparents' house. I can't wait to see them because they have been working at a college in Africa since June. They made sure to be home for my 18th birthday, which means a lot to me. It also doesn't hurt that my grandmother is an outstanding cook. : )
     Sunday afternoon some friends are coming to hang out in honor of my birthday and that night, I am going to see the Avett Brothers, one of my favorite bands. We were supposed to see them at the Old Settler's Music Festival in the Spring but the show was rescheduled to this week. It just so happens to be the weekend after my 18th birthday.
    One last exciting tidbit: by tonight, I will have ALL of my college applications submitted!

Three Day Weekend = Happy Katie

    This week in Computer Programming, we continued improving our HTML pages and got started on CSS. I'm enjoying writing the code more than I thought I would, although I do get frustrated when I can't figure out why the page is not doing what I want it to. Usually, I can figure it out eventually but it sometimes takes me awhile. My Longhorn football website is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself.

    I'm excited for this weekend, mostly because it promises plenty of time to sleep and watch copious amounts of football, cook and eat good food with my family and generally relax. I'm especially excited (and nervous) about the UT-OU game. I'm not really expecting to win but I really don't like the idea of losing either. I'm hoping we can at least put up a fight and possibly come out of the Cotton Bowl with an upset.
    I plan on doing little to no homework because, surprisingly enough, that's about how much homework I have right now. I am going to ride my new road bike that I bought Wednesday night. I have searching for the perfect road bike since June and I am ridiculously excited to finally have one. I've been riding it whenever I've had time since Wednesday but that hasn't been too much so I am looking forward to having an hour or so to ride around my neighborhood.

    Also, exciting football news of the day: TCU is (probably and hopefully) coming to the Big 12! Yay!

OU SUCKS! HOOK EM HORNS!
   
   

HTML is Fun. What?! (Also, free weekend!)

When our teacher told us that would start HTML programming (or not programming because apparently HTML is just a markup language. I'm still a little fuzzy on what that means though) this week, I was sure that I would hate it. But once we got started, I really enjoyed typing the code for the titles and paragraphs, images and links in my webpage about the Longhorn football  program. It was much more enjoyable because we were able to make the page about essentially anything we wanted. If we had simply researched that techniques used to make an HTML page, it would have been an incredibly boring lesson. It would also probably have been way less fun to grade.

I pretty much have a free weekend this weekend because there is a regatta in Oklahoma for our rowing team that I am not going to. This means that I get to spend the weekend at home doing whatever I want. :)
On Friday night, my family and I went to see the Princess Bride at the Violet Crown downtown for a surprise birthday party for a woman at my church. I had no idea the theater was there and it was a fantastic place to see a movie.
This morning, my dad and I went for a bike ride in the Greenbelt in the wonderfully fall-like weather. Then we went to the farmers' market to stock up on okra, cucumbers and other produce. I love the farmers' market but I haven't been able to go since school started because of rowing practice on Saturday morning. Tonight we're going to Cuatro's to watch the UT game.
Tomorrow I will be working on college essays, homework, and making enormous amounts of Pumpkin Pie Spice Chex Mix.

I'm off to work some on my college essays!