Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.

I don't know what I'm gonna blog about today. Let's see here. What happened last week? Hmmm. Well, I went to class a lot and did a lot of work. Okay, I just remembered something blog-worthy. While we (meaning the XC team) were doing our Thursday workout, it started snowing. Very exciting. I guess. Well, it's actually not that exciting, unless your Kevin Dales and have never spent time in the snow, which I am not. I suppose what's new for me is being in this sort of in-between state. I'm used to being in either a temperate climate with no snow whatsoever or being in a complete winter climate, and I've never really given thought to what a place looks like after only an inch of snow on the year. So that's what's up with the weather.

One-Shoe Schmidt

Saturday was NESCAC championships, and I rode the bus with the team to Amherst to cheer them on 'cause I was an alternate. It was extremely muddy, as in so muddy that the tops of everyone's uniforms looked like Jackson Pollocks, and the bottoms were just solid brown. Wesleyan was there (we beat them), and Austin was on their top squad so I got to see him race, but he had a really tough day. Bates was also there. They beat us. But we're still better looking. Another note on the race: Our top guy, Schmidty, won the race by about twenty seconds If you've ever really payed attention to a cross country race, you know that twenty seconds is a simply gargantuan gap. (Notice just how many people aren't right on his tail in the picture.) Not only did he crush everyone else, but he ran more than half of the course on one shoe, 'cause the mud consumed the other one at some indeterminable point along the 8k course.

This is all you get for PB. Sorry.

Also, on the bus ride to Amherst we watched  Monsters, Inc. and The Princess Bride, and on the way back we watched The Emperor's New Groove and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I hadn't seen Emperor's before, and I thought it was just okay, but the other three are, of course, classics. I thought I'd take this opportunity to give you a little snippet of the best of all three, so that's what follows.

Something very exciting happened on Friday. My professor (of the class that I thought was going to be my most difficult) returned our Iliad papers and he gave me an A. I think I was intimidated by his intelligence into thinking that he would be a really tough grader, but I guess my paper did what it was supposed to do. So that put me in a good mood.

Here's my paper, in case you're interested.

What else? Oh, yeah. Halloween. Winkler put a wizard's hat on. So that was kinda funny. There's got to be more I can blog about. I realize that this system of trying to remember unrelated anecdotes may not be the most coherent thing to read, so maybe I should do what some of you do and organize it chronologically. That would make sense. Starting next week. Maybe. I dunno. Oh well. Let's see here. There's always hockey to talk about. But the Ducks have scored one goal in their last two games combined and consequently lost both of them. So we don't need to talk about hockey. I guess I could point out that the Ducks play the Capitals in Washington tomorrow, so Rachael, you could definitely swing over and buy a ticket, 'cause, you know, you're so into that. I suppose there is one other thing I should address. At least a couple of you have noticed that my relationship status on Facebook reads something like "Married to Patrick Hebble." Hebble's a funny guy. He dressed up as Goku for Halloween. I don't know how you can not appreciate that. Now I suppose I ought to address each of you concerning this. Jason, I realize that such an occurrence may seem like a severe breach of our fidelity, but rest assured, our passionate love cannot be contained by any social convention, least of all marriage. Rich, as you well know, our love has almost always existed in defiance of at least one other relationship; this one is just another brick in the wall. Rachael, now you and your science teacher friends have even more to talk about. Nicole, don't worry; I'm still a virgin.  EDIT: He just deactivated his Facebook account. So we're not married.

Not included in regulation Settlers.

I played a good game of Settlers on Saturday night. I had nine points by the time the game ended, so I guess that's not too bad. (The aforementioned Hebble won the game.) At least I didn't pay anybody off to let me win this time. Hold on, were any of you there when that happened? I think Jason was. Remember how pissed off Alanna was, but it was hard to tell because she's Alanna and therefore incapable of showing anger? Another thing: I'm flying home on Friday November 18th and flying back on Sunday the 27th, however I'll be in the middle of the desert from Thursday the 24th until Saturday the 26th. And the moral of the story is that you guys better be around at least for Tuesday, Wednesday, or even Saturday night when I get home.

This is the desert in the middle of which I will be for a few days. It's a spot called Ocotillo Wells that we go to a lot. Rachael's been there too. Not with us, but when she used to ride. But then she stopped destroying the environment with dirt bikes. Pity. So, question of the day. Which one is me, and which one's Cole?