MILK Weekend

Well I guess you are wondering why my entry is titled like it is. Well on my planner it looks like it says MILK weekend and so that's what I call this extended break from work and school.
So anyways, my classes seem kind of hard this quarter. I have Nuclear 708 - Reactor Theory which is a really boring mathematical based class. Nuclear 735 - Power Plant Operations looks like a cool class because it has a great professor and we get to run a simulator at a power plant for 2 days in late Feb early March. The buildup to doing this seems like a ton of memorization and reading...so we'll see how hard this gets. Mechanical 571 - Automatic Controls covers how feedback control systems such as flush toliets and cruise control and thermostat-furnace systems respond to certain inputs. This is also a math based analytical class but not as boring except it is at 730 AM. My last class is Mechanical 564 - Senior Group Design Project. We are designing a lightweight portable crane to lift roofing shingles or something onto house rooves. We must build it so that it can hold 500 lbs up to 30 feet in the air and 15 feet horizontal reach. Oh and the crane has to be mounted on a regular or superduty size pickup truck (AKA not my Ranger). It should be a lot of fun for a design project even though we do not get to build anything, but it is a lot of paperwork and presentations and BS. Should be an interesting quarter but now you know the background info in case I start complaining. Oh and I have a weekly lab with ME 571 which will suck but not like last quarter...and this is my last lab ever.
So I did get my law school applications out this week. I will keep you updated as well as my webpage on whether I got into the schools and what kind of financial aid I get. Should be an ineresting next 3 months or so as I decide just where the heck I will be for the next three years (including the first year I am married).
Last team PTQ of the Pro Tour Atlanta qualifying season was yesterday. We went 1-2. On the whole the season was bad for The 888 Collective (Shep, Tom, and I) as we won a Grand Prix Trial (went 6-1) in Columbus, went 1-3 at Grand Prix Chciago, went 5-2 and missed the top 4 on tiebreakers with insane decks at the PTQ in Chicago, and 1-2 at a Detroit PTQ. Overall record on the season was 13-8...and we got crappy luck every ime except for the grand prix trial. Our main local nemesis from Detroit got 5th at GP Chicago carrying away an invitation to the pro tour in Atlanta and $900...and we beat THEM in the trial handily. Oh well. Next week is the pre-release of the new set and for the first time in a long time (since Torment came out in January 2002) I will only be playing in one event over the 2 day weekend. The 888 Collective will try to defend our absurd pre-release dominance and we'll actually have our usual team of Tom Shep and I to do it. We won the Mirrodin team event, won the Darksteel team event, got 4th in the Fifth Dawn team event, got 3rd in the Champions team event...so we are 4 for 4 for winning prizes at these events. Extended season started today with a grand prix trial in Delaware. I did not go because Kelley is here with me and I do not want to win byes to Boston as I decided to not go due to money (new laptop, cruise, summer, Origins, truck tune up, law school apps, etc) and school (midterm report and presentation due monday morning for senior design project after that weekend) and other reasons (Super Bowl Sunday, going to Boston for spring break). Anyways, 7 teammates made the trip and 5 of them made top 8 which is very impressive. Apparently Tom W (trinity) and Burton (goblins) did not make it at 3-2 as well which means the whole team had winning records on the day. Tom L (tog), Shep (trinity) lost in the quarterfinals. Villa (goblins) lost in the semis. Chris P (desire) beat Akil (new rock) in the finals for the byes which means he will go to Boston and he did not plan on going initially. Assuming Chris N. and the BG boys made it down for the tournament, they probably go thwacked by my teammates since so many of them made top 8 and all of them did well. Of course it had to be funny if Chris N played Shep since we all drafted together all summer in Marietta and we all go to school across the state from each other. After the pre-release the next weekend is the first PTQ for Philadelphia pro tour and I will be there. I love this format and this is the only format I have ever made a top 8 playoff in (twice last year). We'll see if I can finally make it to the pro tour...it's my last big goal as a Magic player. I love the game and it will be hard but eventually I will have to give it up. Well that was more than enough magic wasn't it?
I see all 4 top seeds won in NFL today. I hope Pittsburgh beats New England and Philadelphia again for the title because I really do not like anyone left except them. I was cheering for Indianapolis but they cannot seem to win at New England ever and my Packers got canned by the lowly Vikings last week (and my other team the Buffalo Bills just missed the playoffs this year). Should make for an interesting couple of games next weekend.
So the rest of the weekend has gone well. After the PTQ I stayed at Tom's for a bit and we all played MArio Party 6. Very impressive new version of the game. Today I went in to the lab to work on our senior group project for 3 hours and then Kelley came up. We watched football while she played on her laptop and I graded my large stack of papers for the first time this quarter. Tonight we went out to Mongolian BBQ and while I was full I did not kill my belly and steps like this are good for my losing weight. I want to get more healthy but I will struggle because I have no motivation yet to excercise and eat better. It doesn't help that I look a lot better than I am. I am so far overweight and most of it is in my legs so I do not look too bad at all. Just don't want health problems...and I'd like to do it for myself and for Kelley. Then tonight we've been playing on our new laptops on the bed for a couple hours like a married couple lol. A good day overall. Chris P cancelled the practice draft we were all doing tomorrow before his trip to Japan for the pro tour next weekend so Kelley and I get to hang out all day. I only have 571 HW and our proposal and oral presentation due for our senior design class on Wednesday this week (I have all the other work done) so I can probably not do much tomorrow and be fine this week.
We are watching legally blonde right now. I giggle whenever I think about the main character sending in a video personal statement. It's so unrealistic but the movie apparently started a short fad over the past few years of people doing just that instead of an essay. Anyways, I probably should get off here since this is getting long. TTFN.