A Few Quick Notes 292

-Well today was a bit of a bust as far as the predicted snowfall was concerned. By the time 5:00 PM rolled around we did manage to get a little snow, though things seem to have largely wrapped up before 7:30. I guess we will wait and see, but I don't imagine that we will get too much more snow this evening, though who knows, maybe I will be way off.

-Given that we did get a little snow, I thought that I would try to make a time-lapse video of it accumulating. What I found interesting in the resulting video is that it seems that the snow is starting to melt near the end of the clip, though this could just be the result of changing light conditions.



[Embedded video]

-A few years ago I broke my collar bone in a rather ill-advised, planned sledding collision. Since then, on occasion, my shoulder has made some strange grinding noises when moved. I was reminded of this phenomenon again today when I heard some noise coming from my shoulder as I was lifting my left arm. Fortunately these noises don't yet seem to be connected to a reduction of mobility, though I can only imagine what time and age my do to my shoulder.

-Yesterday, Neil, Rebecca, and I went to the apartment of their friends' to play a few board games. I was introduced to a game called Power Grid, which was pretty good. I also managed to get a game of Condotierre in, and somehow managed to win.

-For dinner we ended up going to a local Chinese restaurant called Mr. Chang's. All three of us were quite impressed with the food and the prices. Though I don't imagine that we will make weekly trips, I do imagine that we will return at some point in the future. It is nice to know that there is an inexpensive, quality food option nearby.

-The more I have been listening to the The Moth podcast the more I have been sensing its connection to This American Life. This week's episode of the The Moth podcast was the re-telling of a story that appeared on This American Life several years ago. A story by Mike Birbiglia was also recently on both shows. I guess this connection shouldn't surprise me as I learned about the The Moth podcast because one of its stories was featured on a This American Life episode.

-A few days ago my sister was kind enough to send Neil and I a link to Highlights' online joke repository. Boy do they ever have some gold material. Neil and I have been laughing about a number of these jokes since getting the email. Definitely check this link out if you are interested in quality internet content.

-I was shocked to learn today that the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals do not have the same owners. I wonder how they share the revenues? I also wonder how it feels to be on the Washington Generals, and how long people tend to stay on the team?

-Though I had to do in my living room scarlet runner bean population my bedroom plants seem to be doing quite well. Shortly after taking this picture I installed the preliminary string set-up to allow them to climb to my bedroom window. Eventually I hope to get these plants to climb across my bedroom window, and then back (though this latter trek may be wishful thinking on my behalf).



The other plants in my bedroom seem to be doing relatively well, though aside from the new corn and the thyme none have put on too much additional height in the past few days (though most have shown some form of growth)

A Few Quick Notes 150

-Though we had a fair range of precipitation types yesterday, today seems to have been pretty pleasant. My only concern is that that some of the slush that accrued yesterday has frozen and turned into ice.

-After a few of us punched out last night, to take advantage of the snow a few of us decided to try and go sledding on McTavish. We originally thought that we could use shovels, but ended up settling for black garbage bags.

Initially I started by sitting down and then trying to just slide. As this didn't really work I realized that I would have to take a slightly more aggressive approach.

I then tried running while holding the bag in front of me and then jumping and landing on my chest. While the speed I achieved wasn't all that great, I did manage to travel about 60 feet. Even after a few attempts, I wasn't able to really beat this mark.

We also tried card board. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. This failure was likely due to the texture of the snow, rather than the idea. If we had had a little more ice on the street I am sure that this would have worked.

-I will be heading back into work this evening. Thomson House will be playing host to some sort of month late New Year's Eve party. Hopefully everything will proceed smoothly, though I am somewhat skeptical.

-On Thursday night I made the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, particularly as the recipe calls for only as many chocolate chips as I typically use in recipes that have much more dough.

A Few Quick Notes 121

-Today has been another overcast and cool day. Though that does not mean it has been unpleasant. Hopefully the grey skies don’t mean that we are in for rain in the very near future.

-As many of you may know, today is the statutory Thanksgiving holiday. As some of you may also know, I generally have Mondays off. I guess what is surprising about today is that it really feels like a holiday weekend, even though it is basically the same as my typical weekend.

-While on a walk today I saw what might have been my first dog sled. The sled, without dogs, was strapped to a mini-van heading north on St. Laurent.

-If anyone has any ideas for a costume that I can wear to Thomson House for the Halloween party I would be appreciative. So far all of my ideas haven’t really been that great.

-This morning for breakfast I had something that was approaching what my uncle would call a ‘Big American Breakfast.’ Unfortunately, as I did not have a fried potato product I did not meet the qualifications. I did have scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon, making a pretty unhealthy meal.

-Much to my surprise, I was able to get down to work and finish a variety of assignment for my business and government information classes. Typically when I set such schedules for myself I fall flat on my face and accomplish next to nothing. Hopefully this means I am turning a new leaf and will be able to maintain or improve upon this standard in the future.