Saturday, February 2, 2008

On to 2008!

So far, the best events of the new year include my successful baking of a tasty carrot cake, our team winning a local pub's Quiz Night (we went from an awful second-to-last one week to first the next) and my friend Mike's birthday (he would be Chemistry Mike, but he's the only one). Since he has a particular aversion to corduroy, we naturally decided to make his birthday present entirely out of corduroy. The brainchild of my flatmate Caryn and dorm-mate Aisling, this marvelous idea expanded to involve a pair of corduroy boy scout shorts, a corduroy bow-tie and elbow-patch set, an utterly fabulous corduroy princess hat complete with tassel, a pair of corduroy Y-fronts (for effect and not meant to actually be worn), the Corduroy Ninja, and a corduroy Anthropology Tom. Mike was a bit baffled but on the whole quite pleased with this array of corduroy-tastic items. The photos are: "The Process," "The Evolution of Mike's Amusement," and "The Corduroy Ninja and Tom." I'm particularly proud of the Corduroy Ninja, my big contribution to the collection (except for the sword - we had to ask Cody, our resident video game and weaponry expert, to make that).

A Break from Bristol

I went home on a nice long holiday break (mid-December to early January). Lots of fun to be done including an outdoor ice-skating expedition with Janna, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," that nice little holiday called Christmas, adventures at St. Olaf with Alan, and many other such excitements. There was a fabulous New Year's party involving many Oles and a birthday cake for my friend Maura with a very silly horse on it. Boys being boys, there was a lot of computer- and Wii-related fun (second photo is Ian, me, Paul, Jenna, Dan). And yes, I did cut my hair.



















My sister's friend Joe came to visit, and of course we went out the Benihana and (not quite so "of course") we had an adventurous night of bowling at the Medina Ballroom. Joe won. By a lot. Good times were had by all, though. :)

Christmas Parties!

We had an Archaeology/Anthropology Department party that required a costume: dress as something archaeology-related, dress as something holiday-related, or dress as something cocktail-party-related. It wasn't really much of a "requirement". First prize for costume might have gone to Ian who dressed as an irate farmer, except that my friend Susie came as a Christmas tree, and Rob was in full pirate gear. Very eclectic. A more serious requirement was the presence of Pringles. Archaeologists MUST have Pringles.The above photo is Gareth, Cody, and Annelise. You'll notice how focused they were on the archaeology/general trivia quiz, completely not distracted. We (the MAs) did take second place, only beaten by the PhD/Professor team. Quite well done on our part.

We had another, non-official, holiday party at my friend Anthropology Tom's house. His title is to distinguish between him (also sometimes called "Harry Potter Tom," but he's not so fond of that one) and Chemistry Tom. First photo is Kara, Cody (again) and Pringles (again). Next is Tom (our host), Mike, and Kara. Then there is the result of a Risk-like game called "War on Terror" - if you lose all your territory, you become a terrorist and get to wear the mask of Evil. Needless to say, we all liked wearing the mask. Danielle, Tom, Aisling, and Cody were all particularly fierce, but Mike won as the fiercest and the most evil of all.

Still Here!

Sorry for the hiatus... it's been a busy few, well, months. oops. Anyway, were was I? December. right. Here are a few photos of Bristol in winter, to please the eye of those in Minnesota where I recently heard it was - now what was it? - oh yeah, -18˚. First a view of the City Centre and then a nice, artsy shot of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe: