Scrubs Tribute #3

As I'm sure all of you noticed because you are heartbroken, Scrubs did not air it's next-to-last episode last night because ABC bumped it for the President's address. So instead they are airing the next-to-last episode next Tuesday, followed by the finale on Wednesday. To continue my tribute to Scrubs, i've selected a clip that was referenced by Katie in this post just last week. Enjoy.

Granola

Yesterday I endeavored to make granola. It's something I always wanted to try to make during college and just never got around to doing. My first try was a success! It was/is delicious. The only problem is that now I snack on it ALL day long. If you'd like to try, here is the recipe I used:

4 c oats
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/2 c peanuts (or you could use 1 c almonds/walnuts/raisins/etc.)
1/4 c oil
1/4 c honey
1/2 t vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mix the liquid ingredients in a sauce pan over low heat until they're mixed together pretty well. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry once and mix until coated. Spread out on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes-ish (til it turns golden brown). Make sure to stir it every 10-15 minutes.

This one is really easy, and you can be as creative with it as you want! Good luck and let me know how it turns out if you try it!

Spring cleaning

The other day I found one of these in our apartment:It was GIANT. And gross. These bugs are my least favorite bugs that exist (except possibly mosquitos, which do not make me nervous, but are really annoying because they bite you and make you itch). I can deal with spiders usually, and bees, ants, etc. but these things are GROSS. Chris smashed it against the wall and it fell and disappeared somewhere, which also grossed me out.

That being said, we decided to do a little spring cleaning this weekend! We vacuumed and mopped the floors and went through about 3 magic erasers. Now I am feeling muuch better.

Scrubs Tribute #2

In case you missed my earlier post, I'm showing a few Scrubs clips as a tribute to my favorite show, which after an 8 year run, is coming to an end. Today's clip is an accurate reflection of how cool I want to be some day. Judge for yourself:

DONE and done!

Yesterday I took my last Anatomy and Physiology exam!! I am so excited to be done! Since I crammed A&P I & II into one semester, there was a total of 14 exams, and I am so relieved that I finished. So if you want to know any textbook knowledge about some of the systems and functions of your body, let me know. I know a lot! I have been surprising myself lately by knowing about obscure diseases (for example, while watching Scrubs the other day, J.D. thought his patient may be suffering from a disease he saw on a documentary referred to as "chompers" and I knew immediately that it was necrotizing fasciitis - a form of flesh eating bacteria!)

Anyway, what am I doing to celebrate? Well, today I took a deeeeep breath, went grocery shopping, caught up on 24 online, and now I'm thinking about reading a book that is not a textbook for fun. Happy Friday!

Scrubs Tribute #1

Hey guys,
As most of you may know, Scrubs is my favorite TV show. I may have mentioned it once or twice, not sure. Most of you (because you don't care about the show) probably don't know that there are only 2 episodes of Scrubs left, which makes me very sad. I was bummed when Friends ended, but I am legitimately sad that Scrubs is almost over. Probably because I felt like it was mine because nobody else seemed to pay attention to it, or the fact that I've been watching it since it's first season, which was 10th grade for me. (I feel old) Anyways, in honor of my favorite show, from now until the finale in 2 weeks I'll be brining some of my favorite clips and scenes onto the blog so that you can see just a few reasons why I love the show so much. And remember that the characters of Turk and J.D. went to William & Mary in the show, so to not like these clips would be very un-Tribe-like. Just kidding. But seriously.

Today's clip is from my favorite episode of season 2, my Fruit Cups:

Digging up trees

This past weekend the Stratton men got together to uproot and replant a tree. It was quite the experience. First they tried yanking it out by attaching a chain around the roots, which didn't work. The last resort was going to be attaching the chain to the neighbor's truck and driving it out, but fortunately Robert jumped in the hole, braced himself against the house and they managed to tip it over and get the thing out. It was really fun to watch and obviously I got a lot of fun pictures out of it :)

Robert in the hole:

The boys, with hatchets, spades and shovels in hand, very proud of their accomplishment:

Some good things come from rain

I know 'April showers bring May flowers' but when I hear that statement, I think warm rain with the sun shining; the kind where you want to go outside and splash in puddles and actually enjoy it.

Today's showers do not remind me of April. It's not warm out! Today is a really dreary day. I'm talking sweatpants and a movie on the couch type of day. I haven't seen the sun because of the blanket of clouds, and I don't anticipate it peeking out any time soon. Anyway, I thought I'd share this rainbow on my desk the other day to remind myself that rain is actually a good thing! On another note - I'm really thankful for the awesome weekend weather preceeding this.


Happy April showers!

Sisters make people happy

I read this article on BBC news the other day. Apparently sisters are healthy for you! They spread happiness (which I am inclined to agree with). The article also claims that brothers breed distress (which I am not so inclined to agree with). Anyway, people with sisters were more likely to be "happy and balanced."

So what about you? Agree or disagree?

Dying eggs

Easter egg dying never gets old! I'm not really a fan of eggs, but I love coloring them. I think people should consider picking this tradition up on other holidays...

Hope you all had great Easter weekends!

Long overdue

Last summer I read the Twilight series. Before you start judging - I was convinced to take the first book home with me by my sisters-in law. I wasn't even planning on reading it at that point, but I googled the books and then searched to see if my local library had the books in case I decided to read them at some point. After signing in and placing the book on hold, I was informed that I was something like 115th in line. 115th!! I have never been more than one or two on a hold list for any book, even one that was just being released. Point being - there had to be something to the books.

I started reading the first one and finished it the next day. I had to get my brother to get me the Microsoft Reader version of the rest of the books because I didn't want to wait however long number 115 or so takes to get a book from the library. That being said, I finished all of the books within the week. Once you start, they're hard to put down! All of them are incredibly awkward in their own unique way, but compelling. You just need to know the ending! And yes, I'm slightly ashamed to admit I saw the movie. in theaters.


Anyway, my whole point in posting this is that the series is getting a bit out of hand. I heard this on the radio the other day. Apparently this boy has been biting his fellow students for a month and a half in the name of Edward and Bella before he got caught. Ridiculous.

Anyway, what about you? Have you been sucked in?

Park close much?

I came out this morning to this. Notice that you can't even see the line marking the parking space between the cars because the guy parked ON TOP of it! I unlocked the door thinking I would still try to squeeze in, but not possible. I ended up having to get in on the passenger side and crawling over the middle to get to my seat. Lame. Learn how to park!

Alex Heacock Tribute Post

As Alex's prize for winning the NCAA pool, here is a list of 10 things about the man the legend that is Alex Heacock.

1. After he only got 20 points in the first round of the tournament, I sent Alex a text saying "your picks are garbage so far." Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that.
2. He does a mean Joe Hachem impression.
3. His roommate looks like Ed from Scrubs.
4. He does a great Barack Obama picking NCAA games impression.
5. When you google Alex Heacock, this is the first link you get. (Bad language) I didn't even know that group existed but I'm joining it.
6. 2007 CAA Javelin Champion, and 5th best javelin thrower in William & Mary history. (*)

(All the best throwers face-plant)
7. He has a blog.
8. He came in 3rd place in the first Basement Olympics. Other notable bronze medalists include Lebron James, Lance Armstrong, and Michael Phelps.
9. He does a great Charles Barkley impression.
10. Homeboy can dance:

* Entering the 2009 season (**)
** Erroneous

Once again, congratulations to our champion, and we'll see you all next year!

NCAA winner

Well folks, you might have thought that when a Michigan St. reserve player made a put-back layup with 3.7 seconds left in last night's championship game that it didn't matter, because they were losing by 17 with the clock running out. If you thought that, then you were wrong. While this seemingly un-important basket had no effect on the outcome of the game, a North Carolina blowout, it made all the difference in the world for our pool. As a refresher for you, if UNC won the game and the total number of points scored in the game was 161 or more, Alex Heacock would be our blog pool champion. If UNC won the game and the total number of points scored in the game was 160 or less, Robert Stratton would have been the champion.
So, when this seemingly inconsequential layup by a Michigan St. backup with 3.7 seconds left happened, it made the final score of the game 89-72. Which added together makes exactly 161 points. So while the championship game itself wasn't that exciting, the championship of our blog pool was as close and as exciting as it gets. Alex Heacock is our 2009 champion by the slimmest of margins. For his prize, a blog tribute will appear here shortly (I'm not made of money. But this is way more prestigious.) If you want to know what the agony of defeat feels like, Robert was live-blogging the game here.

Final Standings:
1. Alex Heacock 142 (wins tie breaker)
2. Robert Stratton 142
3. Ashley Kramer 139
4. Patty Stratton 135
5. Erika Stratton 129
6. Chris Dias 127
7. Liz Ketner 123
8. Jennie Thollander 110
9. Lauren Hall 92
10. Bob Stratton 87
11. Chris Stratton 85
12. John/Dorothy Hall 81
13. Christina Casares 80
14. Ashleigh Stratton 78
15. Eric Hall 73
16. Katie Stratton 68
17. Maggie McDonald 67
18. Eileen Duris 49
19. Kayla Locklin 47
20. Jessica Stratton 43 (will receive a prize for finishing last)

Thanks to all who participated this year and made it our biggest pool to date, and congrats once again to our champion, Alex Heacock. I'll leave you with one of my favorite parts of the tournament, one shining moment.

It's the things you don't think about

It was so sunny this weekend that we were able to spend a lot of time outside. A lot of people were getting a little red and I was thankful that I don't burn that easily! I didn't think I got any color at all; red, pink or otherwise. Well...I was wrong. I burned the part in my hair!! It hurts when I try to brush my hair or take a hot shower :(

Sunday traditions

We spent the weekend in Williamsburg again. It was wonderful! It was a recent alumni weekend so a lot of our closest friends were also there and we had a great time catching up with everyone. It was so nice to sit outside eating lunch and run into several people you know in the span of an hour...it just doesn't happen like that up here in Arlington! This morning we got up early and did what we've done almost every Sunday for the past couple years; went to Wawa for coffee and blueberry muffins and then headed over to Chapel. Happy Palm Sunday!

NCAA Championship Game Update

Hey everybody, we are down to the championship game and our pool here is going to have a dramatic finish. Same as last week, the points in parentheses are your possible points left.

1. Alex Heacock 110 (142)
1. Robert Stratton 110 (142)
1. Jennie Thollander 110
4. Ashley Kramer 107 (139)
5. Patty Stratton 103 (135)
6. Erika Stratton 97 (129)
7. Chris Dias 95 (127)
8. Lauren Hall 92
9. Liz Ketner 91 (123)
10. Bob Stratton 87
11. Chris Stratton 85
12. John/Dorothy Hall 81
13. Christina Casares 80
14. Ashleigh Stratton 78
15. Eric Hall 73
16. Katie Stratton 68
17. Maggie McDonald 67
18. Eileen Duris 49
19. Kayla Locklin 47
20. Jessica Stratton 43

So here are the possible scenarios for winners:

IF North Carolina wins:
Alex and Robert will tie, so it will come down to the tiebreaker of total points scored. If the total number of points scored is 160 or lower, Robert will win, and if it's 161 or higher, Alex will win.

IF Michigan State wins:
Alex, Robert, and Jennie will tie.
If the total number of points is 181 or above, Alex will win.
If the total number of points is between 158 and 180, Jennie will win.
If the total number of points is below 158, Robert will win.

The game is at 9 tomorrow night. Good luck to you guys!

Piling up

I'm a very organized person. I like to be able to find things when I want them and always know where everything is. I don't, however, stack my tupperware. I don't know, it just doesn't bother me! As long as I can shove it all into the cabinet without it crashing down, I'm happy. Don't get me wrong, it has all come cascading out on an occasion or two and it always frustrates me, but it hasn't been enough of an issue yet. Maybe when I accumulate so much of it that there's no possible way to fit it in without stacking I'll cave and start. I've just been noticing recently though that it doesn't reflect the rest of my life, at all! What about you - are you a stacker, or just as disorganized as me?