Happy Halloween!

Halloween weekend has been interesting. On Friday, Erin took me to go get the finishing touches for me costume, and that night we all went to a YSA dance in Hearst (about 45 mins away). The dance ended at midnight, and after that we decided to go to IHOP. However, Matt got us a little lost on the way back to Denton, and we took quite the detour through the heart of Dallas. We finally got to IHOP around 1:45, and we got back to our apartment about 3:00. That was not a good decision -- I'm still recovering from it!

On Saturday we mostly hung around in the apartment, recuperating. We got a couple of Hitchcock films from the UNT Media Library and watched those. In the evening we went to the Institute Halloween Party. We hung out there for about an hour or so, and then we all went over to Matt's house to watch Rope, another Hitchcock film. The Hitchcock touch is very apparent in that one.

Sunday we had been invited over to have dinner with some friends of ours in the ward, Nikki and Lauren. They fed us Hawaiian Haystacks, which was very good, and we had a fun conversation afterward. Nikki is fast becoming one of my favorite people in our ward.

Despite sleeping in quite a bit both Saturday and Sunday, I still have not fully recovered from Friday's lat night, as previously mentioned. In my first class this morning, one of my students even commented on it: "Wow, you look tired! Are you OK?" Well, at least I know they care about my well-being, huh?

Oh! and it rained today, too, which is always welcome, especially here in Texas. I had to walk through it in the rain to go to Institute today, and that was wonderful!

All right, here's the moment I know you've all been waiting for -- drumroll please! -- the pictures of my goth costume. (Well, all right, it's really only one, at least for right now.) I must add that I had a super time being gothic, and I have some fun stories about shopping at Hot Topic.



And finally, a great quote for the day. The last one was specifically from School of Rock, a hilarious movie.

"To make a long story short --" "Too late." (23 points)

just cuz

This Sunday my roommates and I all stayed at home and just hung out. We haven't done that in a long time, and it was nice to just relax and have all that time. Not that we don't enjoy having people over, or going to other people's houses, but it's always nice to have a little change. We played Trouble, which Erin won, and then lots of Boggle, which Erin definitely won too. She's disturbingly good at that game. I might not be able to play with her any more.

I'm getting really excited for Halloween, but unfortunately my roommates this year aren't into it that much. I hadn't enjoyed Halloween much for several years, until I lived with Katie and Holly. Between the two of them, you would have thought Halloween was the biggest event of the entire year. Anyway, I couldn't get either Erin or Margo to take me over to Kroger last night for a pumpkin to carve. I might have to just do it on my own during the next day or two.

I also really need to get going on my costume. Ever since I went to Whitby last Halloween, I've been planning on dressing up as a Goth for this year. I have been intending to go out to Hot Topic at the mall and buy some clothes for that, but I haven't gotten to it yet. For one thing, I was hoping Erin would come with so that (1) I could ride in her car and wouldn't have to worry about taking the bus, and (2) I would have some moral support while I was in the store trying things on. That store still just makes me nervous, even though I've been in there several times before and have always found the people (especially the employees) to be super-nice. I guess it's just a little too far out of my comfort zone. But, the point is, I may have to go by myself tomorrow afternoon anyway. And hope they still have clothes left that fit me.

The last quote was from Chicken Run -- good job Paul and Elizabeth.

Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym. (20)

the weekend

Last night we went to our friend Matt's house. His family lives in Corinth, just a few miles south of Denton, and they let us come over all the time and feed us good food. His mom was making ribs last night for dinner, and she let us come and join them. Boy, was it good! After that we watched Sahara with her on DVD. Much better than I had been expecting. (I also figured out last night why it is that I always have to go to the bathroom so much at Matt's -- it's because I always go over there and drink all their Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. :))

After that we went back into Denton and met our friend Andrew at the mall to see Redeye at the cheap-o theater. Kimberly and I enjoyed it a lot (partly because we really like Cillian Murphy), but pretty much everyone else felt that it was ... what were the words? ... I believe they said, "The worst movie I have ever seen." Yeah, that's right. To be honest, it wasn't that great, but I wasn't expecting it to be any better than that. After all, it was a rather low-budget thriller movie -- how much can you really expect from those these days?

Oh, yeah, and tonight is the ward Hay Ride. Whoopee! They're planning to give us hot chocolate ... I'm not sure how necessary that will be, since it's currently 74 degrees.

Now, the most important thing is, we have to work as a team. Which means, you do everything I say. (18)

Yesterday's quote was, indeed, from Batman Begins. I am going to try really hard from now on to use quotes that my roommates won't have an advantage in. Though, I was trying to do that last time, and it turned out that Margo remembered I had said earlier that day how excited I was the Batman Begins was out on DVD. Hmm. I obviously have to be much more careful, eh?

another update

So, life here has been pretty hectic lately. However, this is the celebratory week of the semester, since my nasty six-hour-a-week graduate class on teaching composition is over now. YIPPEEE!!!!

On the other hand, that also means that this is now the middle of the semester, and classes are starting to get a lot harder. I have a Phonology test in a week and a half, and I need to start going on memorizing (and understanding) a whole bunch of phonological features and phonological processes. Yikes! That's what's got me most worried right now.

I am starting work on a new website that I would like to use for supplemental materials for the classes I teach. I'm trying to see if I can get it up to speed so that I can use it for next semester when I teach 1320. Speaking of which, I'm very excited about 1320, since it is more literature-based and has fewer actual papers for the students to write (or for me to grade).

Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding. (21 points)

P.S. I forgot to tell you the answers from the last post.
(1) "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." --The Princess Bride
(2) a word that is 'sandwiched' in another word (e.g., scrumdiddlyumptious) --tmesis
(3) "She foresaw that she was doomed to a lonely spinsterhood." --Gerogette Heyer, Regency Buck (BTW, I decided to give Emily 20 points for that, since she did know it was Heyer, just not which book it was.)

a new life, a new template, and a new scoreboard

Well, here is. Welcome to my re-designed blog. Happily, this one renders correctly. Let's hope that lasts.

I'm also starting the scoreboard over again. Congrats to Kimberly for winning on the last one. And congrats to Emily, for getting the Henry V quote from the last post. The final score stand as follows:

• Kimberly: 465


• Erin: 437


• Paul: 279


• Elizabeth: 263


• Donovan: 205


• Emily: 178


• Margo: 107


• Amber: 50


• Christina: 10

We'll now start over on the points. Let me explain the rules again ... "No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (15 points for that one)

• If you know the answer, post it to my blog. Answers will not be awarded points if submitted in person, in emails, or by any other method.


• Even if someone else has already answered, you can still get points. (We're on the honor system here; if you say you know it, I believe you.)


• However, you can't look the quote up. You have to know it in your head without help from others (the Internet is an other).


• Points will no longer be awarded retro-actively; in other words, you can only get points for the quote in the current post.

In other news, a cold front has swept into the Denton area, and I've been having a fandiddlytastic time with it. (An extra 60 points if you know the term for a word embedded within another word, e.g. 'fandiddlytastic'.) I wore my black boots, black raincoat, and black Harry Lime scarf. Boy, did that feel good!

She foresaw that she was doomed to a lonely spinsterhood. (40 points)

a new post, for Erin

Erin has been telling me that I need to post something new, so here it is.

Today has been bee-yutiful weather here. If you remember, when I lived in Lancaster, the phrase meant that the sun was out and it was over 60 degrees. Here in Denton, it means almost the opposite: the sun is not shining, the temperature is under 70. I was actually cold today when I went to Curves, and I was even wearing a long-sleeved shirt! The temperature was around 63 today, and the sun was nowhere visible. Oh, it was wonderful! It reminded me of school at Ricks College.

The other day I got my first paycheck from the university for teaching my composition sections. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm being paid twice as much for this job as I thought I was. Yay! That means I can afford to do things like getting a Roth IRA, and buying some clothes.

Now, though, I'm starting (already!) to get worried about the need for a summer job. I'm not sure yet whether or not I'll be going to school this summer, but I know I'll need a job. Dr. Raign reccommended that we apply at the local community colleges, but I don't have a car, and it'll be difficult to get that far to work every day. I have also been planning to start selling Pre-Paid Legal, but I'm not sure I can get that working for me enough to support myself in the summer. I'm going to have to give this some serious consideration.

Also, I just was looking at the website for the local community theater, and it made me think that I need to go see them about working as a techie backstage. They're about to hold auditions (Oct. 30-31) for Romeo and Juliet, which they'll be performing in January.

Oh! and my most exciting news. I'm going to England for a few days in December for my graduation. I bought the tickets on Sunday, and now I'm waiting to see if my dad or my friend Katie wants to come with me. Katie says she wants to, but she has to get some extra personal days off work, so she's waiting for approval from the powers that be.

You'll be interested to see that there's a new contender on the points board. Welcome, Kimberly! Kimberly is a friend of ours here in Denton, and she's studying for her Master's in Library Science (just like Erin, which is how they met). She's already out-stripped Erin on points, mainly due to the fact that she got my quote from Holiday Inn, which earned her 380 points off the bat.

At the suggestion and insistence of several persons (Erin among them), I am going to re-set the point board. But not until tomorrow. I thought I'd give you some fair warning before doing that, and a farewell quote.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. (30 points)