And the Blitzkrieg is OVER!!!!

Breathing is such a nice, pleasant activity. I have never before appreciated it quite as much as I do now. And the sky is blue - I hadn't noticed that in a while. I've been noticing other things today, too, like birds singing, the flavor of food, the way the sun feels on my face . . . it is so nice to finally be finished with the paper/presentation blitzkrieg of the past two weeks.

I learned some very important things about myself lately. For instance, I now know that I can write twenty-one pages and cite ten sources in only thirteen hours. I also learned that my spelling gets "creative" after about 2:00 am. Oh, and I discovered that I can simultaneously write a bibliographical paper and create a Keynote (it's the Mac equivalent of PowerPoint) presentation, on two separate subjects. I didn't know I could do that!

It was utterly insane of me to voluntarily combine two mandatory twenty minute presentations into one forty minute presentation, and do it on the same day that the thirty-page paper was due. I told my prof that if I ever do that again, he has the humanitarian duty to shoot me! Still, it was heavenly to wake up this morning and realize that I only have to write one book review today, and then I can relax and just do paper revisions for the rest of the week. It's going to be a very pleasant week. :0)

In other recent news, I picked up a new ball for Jasper yesterday when I went to get something better for dinner than what the cupboards were offering me. The store had those big plastic balls on sale (the ones that are about the size of a soccer ball). I figured it would be another good park toy for Jasper. Of course, when I got home he could see it in the bag, and excitedly pranced around staring at it until I let him have the new ball for a little while.

Ay yi yi! The dog is in love with the ball! He spent an hour pushing it all over the apartment, having the time of his life. Unfortunately, he can't play with a ball of that size without barking at it - constantly. Loud, sharp, yippy barking. He set off a chain reaction with the dogs above and across from us, which I'm sure no one appreaciated - luckily, it was evening and not nighttime. I let him have the ball again for a little while today, with the same result. I guess we'll be spending some considerable time outside this weekend, so that Jasper can play with his new ball in the grass. He drove me nuts for nearly an hour after I took the ball away today: he cried, begged, and growled at me trying to get me to let him have it back. I told him that his whining was far less bothersome than his barking, and ignored him. Tough love! Eventually, he settled down and resigned himself to playing with his long toy snake, occasionally sneaking glances at the box I put his ball in, and shooting me pleading looks.