Dashing

Things I have done to prepare for tomorrow's Monster Dash Half Marathon:
1. Purchased rainbow-striped thigh-high socks
2. Purchased rainbow-striped fingerless gloves/arm warmers
3. Purchased rainbow-striped hats (though, sadly, they only shipped one of them)
4. Attended the race expo and picked up my chip and shirt
5. Made cinnamon rolls for eating afterward

I haven't actually run since the Twin Cities Marathon (unless you count a dash to the Asian grocery store earlier this week; I did put on running shoes and run there--and back, carrying cans of coconut milk). I've been... conserving my energy. Resting up. Carb loading!

Anyway, when a friend who had also run TCM this year (after running her very first marathon with me two years ago) told me that she had the perfect costume idea for the Monster Dash and that we had to do it, I couldn't resist. We're going as a Double Rainbow! So intense!

Stormy Weather

David and I had just started eating dinner this evening when the wind storms that had been raging all day knocked the power out. There was a little bit of daylight left, so we lit a bunch of candles, finished eating, and called the power company to report the outage. They estimated we'd be back up by 8:30, so we decided to carry on our plans for the evening, just without electricity.

(Aside: when I lived in Auburn, where I spent my last two years of grade school and four years of high school, we lost our power all the time. Not because we had crazy weather, necessarily;* more because we apparently had a spectacularly unstable power grid. The slightest wind storm would cause a blackout. [When I lived in Nebraska, where they have tornadoes, we lost power ONCE: when a tree fell on the power lines right outside the house. They had us back up and running within a couple of hours.] Anyway, in Auburn it was rather festive, because we would light a fire in the fireplace and maybe make soup on it, and generally have a jolly time. Tonight was the first time I remember having a nighttime power loss since then, and I realized once again how we're living in THE FUTURE. Not only were we able to call the power company on our cell phones, but David could still get the Internet on his phone, my gas furnace still worked to heat the place, and I was able to use both my stove top and my oven! I guess the latter two are not so much living in the future as using natural gas... but whatever.)

Our evening plans involved making an apple crisp from the box of Honeycrisps my mom sent out with David's parents, so we just baked it by candlelight. We'd peeled too many apples to fit into the crisp, so I peeled a few more and made a big pot of applesauce.

And then--back to living in the future--we started a movie on David's netbook, which has a most impressive battery.

Anyway, our lights are back up again, after an hour more than estimated of candlelit living. It was actually quite delightful.

*though this notable exception comes to mind

Pumpkin II

Guys! You left such kind responses on the last pumpkin post! As for the question of whether it's real, and actually a pumpkin, here is an image of it alongside the one that was originally supposed to be my portrait but failed miserably. Now the latter is a slightly more traditional jack-o-lantern, although all you can see here is its gaping maw.
Oh, and here is one with flash, where the magic disappears!

As far as the how, I used a photo of David taken in strong light and used photo-editing software to heighten the contrast even more. I printed it out at the size I wanted, taped it to the pumpkin, and then transferred the outlines using a thumbtack. From there, I tried to leave the darkest areas entirely intact, cut clear through for bright white, and carve into the flesh for an attempt at gray tones. Actually, the only place I ended up cutting the whole way through was the forehead, partly out of a desire for stability. My tools were a paring knife and a grapefruit spoon; I think it would be easier with proper carving tools!

It's also easier when the pumpkin wall is as uniform as possible and relatively thin--maybe an inch and a half. You want some thickness for stability, but you don't want to bury your knife to the handle and only see the very tip sticking through the other side (as happened to me when I first inherited the hollowed pumpkin from David!).

It's a bit fussy, but the results when you put a candle in it and turn out the lights are awfully nifty.

Pumpkin

I carved a pumpkin, for the first time in recent memory!
It's not perfect, but I got tired of working on it. I hadn't tried anything like it before--except a miserably failed attempt at my own portrait, just prior--so I'm reasonably pleased.

David's parents were here this weekend, and we had a most excellent time, despite the fact that our record-setting 28-day stretch of dry weather ended with rain on Saturday and more today. Pictures to follow!

Procrastiblog

I'm trying to finish the first chapter of my dissertation, which is kind of an exciting thing to write, since being able to finish a chapter does bode well for being able to finish the dissertation.

It's writing here that I'm "finishing the chapter," though, that's exciting; the writing of the chapter itself is not so great. I'm trying to get as much done as possible so I can give it to my workshop group tomorrow, for discussion on Wednesday. I don't technically have to give them the entire chapter or anything, but, as I mentioned before, having a chapter done--or done enough to give to my adviser, anyway--is a pretty thrilling prospect (as is getting to on new material! Woo!).

Anyway, I never shared pictures from my birthday, which I celebrated in Florence with Italian friends the Cocos. It was marvelous! More procrastiblogging opportunities will almost certainly arise soon, in which case maybe I'll try to catch you up on the last part of that trip.

Autumn

Last week was absolutely unbelievable here, with nothing but sunshine and highs in the 70s and 80s (87° on Friday!). Today hit 80° and the rest of the week is supposed to be somewhat cooler, but still sunny. You may recall that four years ago, it snowed on October 11, so this is a very welcome reprieve, especially as our September was decidedly chillier than usual.

The last Sunday of the month was lovely, though--sunny and warm enough to want to be outside, but with a distinctly autumnal crispness to the air. David and I decided to go to Stillwater (where I also ran a half marathon several weeks ago). We visited an apple orchard just outside of town, which was unfortunately rather swamped and overpriced (though it didn't stop us from stocking up on apples and other apple-related treats), and then downtown Stillwater.

We called David's mom on the way back and got her apple pie recipe. I had made a personal-sized apple pie in Home Ec my freshman year of high school, but nothing since then, and never a full pie. My results weren't terribly pretty, but were thankfully highly edible! If we get another shot at some of that crisper autumnal weather, I'd definitely like to visit another orchard (I've had good tips on one near White Bear Lake, where I ran the 20-mile again this year) and try another pie!

10-10-10

Obviously, I have been a blogging failure of late, of which my mom specifically called yesterday to remind me (hi Mom!).

I've been distracted by any number of wonderful things, about which I'll hopefully post--probably when I'm sufficiently interested in avoiding non-wonderful things, such as the piles of midterm exams my students are taking on Tuesday.

In the meantime: Marathon! I ran my fourth Twin Cities Marathon last Sunday. I did the first 17 miles with my very speedy running buddy, who was doing her first ever marathon, before I couldn't keep up. I ended up finishing in 4:37, which I just realized (thanks to the wonder of the Internet) is actually my second fastest marathon time. Speedy finished about half an hour before me, which is sort of heartbreaking, but she's so amazing I can't be bitter.

I think this is the link to the album of pictures I posted on FaceBook.