A couple randoms for the day:

• Incidences like these are subtle hints that I may actually be an adult now: I got really excited last Tuesday when the box that was outside my apartment door contained a water-proof mattress topper for my new bed. Thank you, Dusty.
• It drives me absolutely crazy when people write reviews for recipes they've never even tried.  Hmm, I'm going to give this stir fry sauce recipe four stars and then comment "HAVEN'T MADE IT YET, BUT IT  SOUNDS AND LOOKS DELICIOUS!" Seriously? Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
• I also don't quite understand when someone takes up two seats on a full TRAX train in the middle of a university class day.  No, I don't think your backpack needs to have its own seat. ESPECIALLY when there is an older woman standing up right next to you. GEEZ.

And, an update from the last week or so:
- School is getting much busier.  And my desk and floor under and around it is definitely an indication.  It's mostly "busy work" than anything, really -- doing modules for HIPPA and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) so we can do research, completing necessary forms for a "mock" research proposal, grading tests and assignments for the classes I TA for, etc.  I actually get somewhat frustrated at times.  After the third or fourth module on ethics in research and in health care, I definitely feel like my time could be better spent on something else.  Oh well.

- Dusty drove up to my parents' house yesterday and brought them a webcam! So, I got to talk to them on Skype yesterday for the first time since I've been out here.  It's going to make things a whole lot easier.  I know I definitely wouldn't be doing so well if I didn't get to "see" and talk to Dusty every other night. Got to "see" my "babies," too - aka, MamaCat, Arby Cat and Lucy Dog.  Lucy was so funny -- she actually recognized my voice and knew it was coming out of the speakers and then kept looking at me on the screen.  Oh, I miss her.  She was quite the handful when we first got her, but she has matured into an awesome little girl.

the best raspberries i've ever had.
they were gone within two days.

- Volunteered at the Murray Farmers Market yesterday with Utahns Against Hunger.  Great experience -- we gave out about $100 worth of tokens for clients to use at the market.  LOVE that farmers' markets are now accepting the EBT benefits. So much better than buying $100 worth of frozen pizzas, right??

It was an interesting morning for other reasons though:

cucumbers!

...There is definitely not enough parking for the number of people that come to the market.  Witnessed a couple parking disputes. I just don't understand why it is so dang important for people to get a parking spot right up front. Even better is when people see someone walking, possibly toward a car, and then wait for what seems like five minutes for them to pull out, just so they can have that parking spot. Seriously, just park a bit further away and spend an extra 30 seconds of your life walking.  Is it really that bad? I love when it all turns into a honking war.

...I witnessed an argument between an older lady and one of the farmers.  The lady asked whether or not the  20+ boxes of peaches he had at his stand were "fresh-picked."  He responds, saying that they picked them the previous evening.  She then says something about not buying them because they're not fresh-picked.  He then tells her "Well, lady, you better plant your own tree then."  And that proceeded into an argument about how he should have picked the fruit before he had to drive an hour to get there by 7:30.

edamame!

...then. The guy that was working with me left for literally three minutes to go hang a banner and about thirty seconds after he left, a couple guys came over to the booth and wanted to trade in their tokens for cash.  Well, we can't do that.  Once they buy tokens with their EBT card, they cannot get cash back -- that'd just be cheating the system.  Well, when they finally understood that they could SPEND those tokens at the market, they were okay with it.  Not happy they didn't get the cash, but they left me alone. Ha, what can you do except laugh?

tart cherry jam...SO, SO, SO GOOD!

Finally, a quote from one of the assignments I'm grading.  These students have an online "grocery store" that they need to shop at every week and meet certain nutrient goals.  At the "checkout", it gives them a breakdown of all of the nutrients from the foods in their "cart."  They are then supposed to go to the actual grocery store, buy those foods, and work them into their diet for the week.

There have been some interesting responses.  

This one definitely caught my eye though.

"I noticed that my poop was really weird, I believe it's just my body getting used to the healthy food that's coming into it, which is great!"

Really looking forward to responding to that one...