Desert Turkey

Beck and I more or less survived our first Thanksgiving weekend sans travel in our collective history. Beck had to work Wed-Fri-Sat-Sun, so booking it over to Texas or up to Rochester for a single day was out of the picture. We ended up having the meal proper with Beck's internet friend (now real life, brunch-going friend) Lorena and her family/friends which ended up being a nice little pot-luck affair. Beck made some ridiculously good sweet potatoes, one dish sweet and one savory, which received an onslaught of compliments. Unsurprising. No turkey-dancing, no potato-peeling, so it obviously suffered by comparison, but we managed to have an okay time. Football was not on, which struck me as sacrilegious / bizarre - what easier conversation-lull filler between people who don't really know one another than the pleasant drone of Turkey day football cheers? Ah, well.

Spent the bulk of the vacation grading essays, the final set of position papers for the Bio 311 Biology & Society course. I've got a collection of gems once again; maybe later they'll find the webs, but for now, here's the winning introductory sentence:

"Along with satisfying our desires and needs as humans, there comes the burden of its consequences."

Truer words, etc.

Last weekend brought a merciful end to VOTS Fall League. Justin's team May Cause Dizziness beat Cole's Huck My Life in the finals for the championship, so congrats to Dheintime again; we got nowhere near either spot. We had some attendance problems for the final weekend - we were pretty much eliminated already with the received shellacking the prior Tuesday, but on Saturday people came late, got injured, and didn't do a whole ton of running in the game besides. 'Twas a fairly exhausting couple games of effectively-savage for me; we tried to keep things close but couldn't do a whole lot. Beck played well - threw a forehand for a score despite a girl mugging her pretty significantly, so that was cool - but by the end of the day, I think she was just as tired of this fall season as I was. We had some good times, had a good run in the middle there, and the lesson is thoroughly learned - always draft your own team.

Between those three losses, a scrimmage loss last weekend and a scrimmage loss Friday, I've had a bad string of late. Pickup this afternoon, and men's league (which started last week, but we had a bye), so hopefully things will turn around before long.

A presentation and two papers due in the next week and a half. Shwank. I got quite a bit done yesterday by planting myself in a coffee house for six hours straight, and when I came outside to Phopenix rain, I was quite thoroughly disoriented. Beck and I have made the most of the time we've had this weekend - watched a few movies (Capote, Living in Oblivion), done some crosswords, eaten great food (including MoJo!) and dipped our head in the occasional can on paint. I am also told our banter on facebook is "quite funny." Go us.

Oh, and we have a little guest staying with us.


She's a super cute cat named "Sophie" (her old name was "Found," but Beck thinks that's lame). Incredibly social and having a grand ol' time locked away in our guest bedroom where Sparkles can't eat her. AND she hasn't made me explode with allergies yet, so that's nice. She does occasionally meow and cause World War III in our living room as S/W scamper to investigate, but otherwise no major issues. Anyways, if you'd like a great cat, she's hanging out in our pad for the time being.

Alright, enough breaking, more presentation preparing. Catch y'all soon, hopefully with more entertaining posts.