As promised, I’ve got the photos of the wedding from my dad’s camera online on my flickr account. Take a peek. This one of my stepmom and her mom is easily my favorite…

While at work today, Dad brought me the disk to his camera containing photos from the wedding. He said he hadn’t taken a look at it yet but I could see if there was anything worth keeping. There was! He had the photos I was wishing we had: my mom looking beautiful in her dress, my dad and stepmom, my relatives from out of town that I hadn’t seen in what feels like 10 years, Derek’s parents, the best man, the maid of honor. He saved the day today. Hugs. I’ll try to get some online tomorrow and post a link.

Update on the little poop machine: he’s scampering around better, looks happier, but still isn’t eating. Drinking on his own, though, thank goodness. Tonight before bed he showed an interest in his food dish but no chowing down. Fingers still crossed.

Honestly, it’s been an extremely rough week. Ugh. Our rabbit, Sumi, suddenly was showing weird symptoms of being sick. The poor baby started randomly stumbling around, which seemed to frighten him (and us!) terribly. He stopped eating and drinking and wouldn’t cooperate when we’d try to feed him anything. We took Sumi to the vet on Wednesday, who despite knowing a ton about rabbits, wasn’t quite sure what was wrong with him. He asked us to keep an eye on his condition and bring him in if it gets worse…which he did. He seemed to be getting weaker and was falling over more frequently. I was so worried we were going to lose my sweet little bunny. Saturday the vet gave us some anti-biotics to give the pooper (orally through an eyedropper–not fun, for him or us), and he seems to be feeling a little better. We’ve been able to get him to drink water when we bring him a little cup to drink from (very cute). His hopping has gotten better and I can tell he’s feeling a little better already, but he’s not yet eating. He’s definitely not at 100% yet. It’s been an extremely stressful week, and I think I’ve finally realized at least a fraction of what my parents went through with me going in and out of the hospital when I was growing up. I know I’m going to breathe a big sigh of relief when he hops over to his dish and eats his pellets again. Fingers tightly crossed.

I’m so so angry right now. We just got a letter in the mail letting us know what happened legally with the guy who broke into our house. No jail time. No community service. He was sentenced to pay a whopping $65 dollars. What??!! So…the fact that I was traumatized and had to start therapy didn’t help any? My bills have cost more than that. Apparently his extensive rap sheet had no impact as well. Makes me wonder who he knows in the court system. I can’t wrap my brain about what happened here.

In the same vein of the article 12 Classes We Wish Our Schools Had Offered on Mental Floss, I decided to look into some of the more unusual classes Mason City’s own North Iowa Area Community College offer (taken directly from their catalog). Take a peek…

Introduction to Video Game Testing (3 s.h.)
Intro to Video Game Testing defines the steps involved in taking the basic idea for a video or computer game through the formal steps of definition and implementation. The course is meant to provide the overview of how testing is incorporated into video game production and development. Basic testing concepts will be introduced to the students. Students will develop their working video game. The students will then thoroughly test other students’ video games. [Am I reading this right? Is this a class on how to PLAY video games?]

Stocks, Bonds, and Investing: Oh My! (1 s.h.)
Stocks, Bonds, and Investing: Oh My! emphasizes preemptive planning for a financial account by comprehending financial markets through identifying how financial markets operate. This course has been designated as a pass/no pass course. [Yeah, the name did it for me on this one.]

Air-Conditioning Principles (2 s.h.)
A study of the theory of air-conditioning. Includes psychometrics, heat gain/loss problems, and equipment sizing. [There's actually a theory??]

Current Issues in Sport (3 s.h.)
Prerequisite: MGT-220, Introduction to Sport Management. Sport, health/fitness, and recreation organizations have been facing many changes in recent years. These changes have exposed many problems that these organizations must solve in order to ensure future success. This class is designed to expose students to these issues in order to prepare them for management careers in the sport, health/fitness, and recreation fields. [So much for sports only being a game.]

Ethical Hacking (3 s.h.)
Prerequisite: NET-613, Information Data Assurance, or permission of instructor. This course will go into more depth using the tools and concepts students were exposed to in Information “Data” Assurance. The student will be introduced to the concepts, principles, and techniques supplemented by hands-on exercises for defending from an attack. These methodologies are presented within the context of properly securing the network. The course will emphasize network attack defense methodologie with the emphasis on student use of network attack techniques and tools. The concept of Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) will be strongly emphasized in this course along with several of the CISSP CBK domains. [Again, loved the name.]

College Reading Strategies (3 s.h.)
Designed to help students become more efficient and effective in reading college textbooks, required materials, leisure articles, and books. Course adapts to the style and needs of each individual to improve vocabulary, comprehension, rate, and study skills. [I would think this would be a skill necessary to get INTO college.]

Listen to Your Heart and Success Will Follow (1 s.h.)
Intelligently facilitated and fast-paced, Listen to Your Heart and Success Will Follow will help you enjoy the rewards that come from doing what really makes you happy! Your instructor and a caring community of students will help you begin designing a life that really works for you. With a complete understanding of your own interests, values, needs and abilities, you’ll learn how you can use work to express yourself and share your interests and talents. Your every day will be filled with joy and inspiration, and a greater depth of meaning will be added to everything you do. This course program is skillfully crafted to weave experiential learning with the conceptual presentation, giving you time to experience, understand, and implement each new strategy as it is introduced. [Wow--so sweet and touchy-feely it makes my teeth rot.]

After looking at the photos from the wedding again this morning, I discovered that there isn’t a single photo of my mom and me together. Does anyone who happened to bring a camera have one of the two of us? Please let me know. Thanks.