Prison Ministry/House Dinner

Last night, I was privileged to visit the Lino Lakes Correctional Facility with the University of St. Thomas Liturgical Choir (i.e., go sing at the prison).  I wasn't at all sure what to expect, but the friendliness and joy of the inmates blew me away.  They were so appreciative -- honestly, just like when singing at a nursing home, but coming from a group of bearded, tattooed, "Amen!"-ing guys, it was a whole new experience.  "Soon and Very Soon" was by far the biggest hit, but I was most touched by their response to "Amazing Grace."  I used to think that that was just another over-played hymn, but singing it with a bunch of prisoners who are in love with the Lord was so humbling!

And tonight, I cooked for house dinner (perhaps I should have clarified: the title of this post refers to two separate evenings :)).

It won't let me post a pic of my pizzas in progress (quick, siblings et alii homeschooled children: what literary technique did I just [accidentally] use??), but that's probably for the best, as we really ought to tackle the oven next house cleaning.  But the pizzas were tasty, and there are leftovers; yay! :)

Frustrating evening study sessions + fresh baked cookies...

= a dangerous combination (but a slightly less frustrated Emily ;)).

A few pictures for you:

Pansies, because they reminded me of Granny. :)

Minneapolis, because I was there making a Target run, all by myself!

So I guess someone decided to keep one end of the practice room area all to themselves?

(The doors are both open in this picture -- when they are closed, it's an open hallway.)

Sunny Monday

Greetings, everyone;

I hope that you have all been appreciating the sun today!  Mama, you will be pleased to hear that I ate both lunch and dinner outside -- hard to tell in this picture, but here's my little spread:

Okay, so I was rather desperate for a picture... :)  And I needn't have been, since I just made this:

It's not actually functional right now, but by Wed. morning it should be a little drawing program!  Doesn't it look nice? ;)

Now, time for bed.  Goodnight!

Mama's Birthday

... so happy birthday, Mama!  Last night, G-pa brought me back to the northern suburbs, and in the morning shuttled me to the Meuer house to surprise Mama at her birthday breakfast (which was cutely choreographed, thanks to Manda; great job, party planner!).  A huge thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for dinner last night and driving me all around!

Also: this week, flowers started blooming in our yard:

 They were such a beautiful rainy day treat. :)

Other excitement of the week: on Thursday, Campus Ministry hosted an event called NightFEVER -- students went out in teams of two and invited everyone we met to come to the Chapel, light a candle, and pray for peace in the world (or whatever personal intentions they might have) in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  It was quite a Holy-Spirit-filled night!

The rest of the time, I've basically been doing homework and making music -- so not a bad life. :)  Hope that you are all having a good, refreshing weekend!

Tired Fourth Day/Whitney's Birthday

Hi everyone,

Feels like forever since I've posted!  But I guess it's only been a few days. :)  I had a refreshing retreat, even though taking the weekend off for it meant that today was crazy.  However, I'm pretty much done w/hw and on my way to bed, and it's only 11!

Today was Whitney's birthday -- so happy birthday, Whitney!

Such a great housemate deserves neater lettering than that, but it's the best we could do. :)

And here are some of the coding highlights of the day:

(The above is supposed to be a 3 element array... I'm not quite sure what went wrong...)

But then I got it working:

Doesn't that just look nice and organized?

Goodnight!

Late Homework Night

... but I finished my essay rewrite!  I'm trying to be grateful that doing homework until this hour is the exception for me, and just not thinking about getting up tomorrow. :P

And with that, I should probably get to bed.  (Sorry, I thought maybe I had something more substantial to say, but I guess not...)  Goodnight!

Haydn Mahlerque/Michaela and Micaela Andrew's Recital

The past couple nights have been full of concerts.  Latin scholars who recognize the suffix "que", meaning "and", in the title of this post, may suspect that one of the concerts included Haydn and Mahler, and they would be right: last night I heard the MN Orchestra, playing Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony (in which the musicians walk offstage during the final movement!) and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.  Then this evening, I had the pleasure to attend a joint recital by Michaela Andrews (horn) and Micaela Andrews (soprano).  Both are Liturgical Music Majors, and since there are only four of us, Lit Music has the distinction of being the only major (as far as I know) where half of the students have the same name. :)

And Michaela (with an h)'s parents were kind enough to provide snacks:

How cute are those treble clefs?

Thursday of the Octave of Easter + Fr. Robert Barron

Today was a relatively straightforward Thursday; no picture, but some highlights of this evening:

• Sisterhood dinner -- formation by Dr. Klein and chili by Whitney for a double win!
• Fr. Barron came to speak at St. Thomas!  His talk was entitled "Aquinas and Why the New Atheists Are Right", and while much of the metaphysics of it went over my head, I enjoyed stretching my brain to try to comprehend it, and did grasp some. :)
• 500 w/Nick, Katie, and Nathan (not my siblings; the other K & N ;)).  They won in the second hand, thanks to Nathan's successful 8 no-trump bid (it helps to have all the aces!).  And I bid and started to lead the next hand before realizing that I had the joker (we were using a 2 of hearts for it)... whoops...  Still a fun game, though. :)

Wednesday of the Octave of Easter

A couple interesting pictures for today; first, the "confetti" generated by a program I wrote:

I tell it how many little pieces of confetti to make (this is 200, fyi), and it gives them random positions and colors!  If that's not interesting, then you probably shouldn't major in Computer Science.  (But if it is, come join the club! ;))

Speaking of clubs, I went to Swing Dance Club for the first time tonight, and it was amazing!  The other dancers were all very good (and, thankfully for me, willing to share their expertise). :)  I hope to go back again soon!

The final picture is actually from yesterday.  In trying to find the right story or emotion for my Haydn piece, Dr. Cornett and I decided that it should actually sound kind of like a little friendly monster -- and she just happened to have some on hand:

And because you're probably wondering just what those little Ugly Dolls sound like (look for the 4th mvt., about 8:56 in):

Thanks for reading; I hope you all have a good-night!

Back from Break

Happy Easter, everyone -- He is risen!

This past week, I've had a fabulous time at home with the fam!  Thank you all for the fun week of hanging out, playing card games, attending Triduum Masses, etc. :)

Is this a cute Easter boy or what?

Things are ramping up slowly here, and I think that I'm getting back into the school groove.  I also read an inspiring organizing book over break, and the result is my newly-folded shirt drawer:

Goodnight!