Black, Gold, and Red All Over

Happy Halloween! It's already been a good weekend and I haven't eaten any candy yet.
Last night, I went to the Museum of Vancouver where they've opened "Ravishing Beasts", an exhibit about taxidermy. It's is weirdly compelling and I certainly learned a lot about taxidermy. Even more than that one time when I sat next to a professional taxidermist on an airplane. So we checked that out and then the museum had a screening of Psycho. You know, taxidermy exhibit, Norman Bates is a taxidermist. It's connected. Plus Halloween. I was nervous because I get scared very easily and don't generally watch scary movies, but this was ok. I had seen Psycho before, in some distant past, and turns out it's not scary. So that was a fun, if unusual, way to spend a Friday night.
This morning, Iowa beat Indiana in a terrifying way: led by atrocious play by QB Stanzi and trailing Indiana the whole game until the 4th quarter. Then it was a completely different game, with 28 points for Iowa and a final score of 42-24. Given Iowa's ranking, it should have been easy (which begs the question, are the Hawkeyes overrated? begrudgingly, I'd say yes) but easy wins aren't available in Iowa City. Still, I'm sure the denizens of IC are happy, inebriated, and costumed in bad taste. Happy Halloween, Iowa City. I know this is your favorite night of the year.
And now this brings me to the Phillies. Game 3 of the World Series is tonight and they'll be in Philly. Mom and Dad are going to the game which I know is a far better way for them to spend the evening than waiting for a smattering of trick-or-treaters to show at the house. Because of my evening plans, I won't be able to watch the whole game but I'm supremely confident.
Fortunately, I'll be wearing red to show my support. Turns out I'm dressing up as a parrot for Halloween. Well, a parrot, or a macaw, or another generic red tropical bird. Whatever you'd like to call it. But I'll be in lots of red so maybe I should just wear my Phillies shirt too. Unfortunately, this would be lost on all these Canadians. Rest assured, if I were in Philly, I'd wear it.

Hawkeye in Canada

Hopefully everyone watched Iowa play Michigan State last night. A fairly boring game until the last couple minutes when my heart rate skyrocketed. Long story short, Iowa won on the last play of the game with a short touchdown pass. This makes the Hawkeyes 8-0 for this season, the first time in their entire history they've done it. Not to mention MSU has been dominating Iowa for the past few years so finally that ended. All around, it was an incredible win for Iowa. Not pretty, but certainly a win.
It's a little sad watching these games alone; I'd like there to be more Hawkeyes around. I'm sure my neighbors wondered what was going on because 1. they would have no idea what sports game someone would have been watching at that time and 2. there was only one person yelling/cursing/jumping. I am very confused as to why my basic cable package has the Big 10 network but I'll go with it. It was quite a relief when I found out I could watch most of the games. Now there are 4 games left and there's no guarantee about any of them but they will be exciting.

MidTerm Baking

It's already been a long week and there's still more to do. I had the best of intentions to get a lot of work done this afternoon but that simply didn't happen. Instead, I baked banana bread.
I like banana as much as anyone else but I always find that I have one more banana than I can eat before they start getting too ripe. But these are perfect for baking; I just put them in the freezer until I've collected three or four and then it's time to bake!
A recipe is included below but it's nothing special, just a simple one to throw together some afternoon. I will be enjoying a slice in just a couple minutes when it's cooled. And some tea. And some Phillies game. Not bad.
Also, I get to bake more next week. My graduate students of my department host a conference in the spring so we're having a bake sale to raise some money. I'm thinking chocolate chip cookies, though I may reprise this banana bread or even get some muffin tins and really go crazy. Baking is probably my favorite way to procrastinate. And also cleaning. Both very good.

Banana Bread
Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Oh hey, Grad School

This grad school thing doesn't agree with me. I'm in for two very long nights and 15 minutes of shameful embarrassment when I present my paper on Wednesday. And I know I did this to myself; just let me be miserable and complain for a minute.

Is there a way to audit your way through grad school?

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving at the wrong time

Well the 2nd Monday in October is not the wrong time but it does mean November can be a long month of no holidays. Except Remembrance Day, we get that off but it's a Wednesday. Still, Thanksgiving on a Monday seems wacky to me. Overeat and then have to roll into work/school the next day? No thanks. Also that means it's harder for people to travel to be with family for the holiday. Though from what I've seen of the students around here, they'll form their own versions of family with each other and just do it that way.
I was not around to celebrate though; I traveled back to America to celebrate Columbus Day instead. It was a good time for me to go back and see John (my visit closely followed his birthday) and just catch up with people because I won't go back again until Christmas. It was a fun weekend, like stepping out of my life in Vancouver for a bit. It made returning to school and getting back into this routine very difficult though,
Cool, fall weather has set in around here. Not so many leaves to change color here so I'll miss that. But splashing through puddles in rainboots is quite fun. For now. But things are generally quiet around these parts. My building is being renovated so I can hear the workers' conversations every day. (Men are just as gossipy as women for the record.) Halloween plans are also in the works which will be a nice way to relax after a very busy week coming up.
Also, I got my British Columbia Medical Services Plan card today. I'm officially in the Canadian healthcare system. Maybe I should have them check out this potential ringworm. Gross, I know. But it's not a worm! Just a fungus.

23

Yep, I'm 23 now, big birthday day.

Not quite actually. Today wasn't much different from any other Wednesday and that's quite alright. I had class all morning, worked on a paper all afternoon, then more class and an exam this evening. A long day but fairly productive and honestly, I'm not much of a birthday person anyway. Got all the requisite calls from family and friends as well as the Facebook messages from everyone else. I suppose I should have gathered whichever Canucks I could and grabbed a drink tonight but I'm too tired. Nolan will be here this weekend so I can celebrate with him and then I'll be back in Philly the following weekend when John and I will celebrate our birthdays together. It's all fine with me because I'm not such a birthday person anyway.

Sometime this weekend, I will buy myself a birthday present though. Something useful but still fun. Rainboots? YES.

Other than that, not much going on around here. The semester is flying by; I'm turning in my first paper tomorrow and I realized that I have another two due in three weeks. Yikes. So crazy and I still have to figure out what classes I'm taking for next semester. This was supposed to be done over the summer when I registered for this semester. I didn't know that but I think it's ok.