I learned something new!

Dan hasn't had a haircut since we left Utah. The last haircut was a week or two before graduation. In August. Three months ago.

Needless to say, he was looking pretty scruffy. Beyond scruffy, really. Into mange-y.

So he went to class today and I read and worked really hard in the kitchen. (Meaning I took a nap. But don't tell.)

I woke up a few hours later to Daniel walking into the room, putting a box on the nightstand and saying "I can't take it anymore."

It was a haircutting kit he picked up at Costco on his way home.

So I cut his hair.

It would seem appropriate at this point to post some great before and after pictures and show you what an incredible job I did, with only a couple of minutes of looking over the instructions. But we didn't think that far ahead. And I'm not really sure I want anyone looking too closely.

But if I do say so myself, he looks rather handsome.

World Series

**Update: I was going to write a little bit about why the Yankees don't win every year even if they spend the most money every year both in the original post and then in response to a comment, but Joe Posnanski, a writer for Sports Illustrated, did it for me. He's one of my favorite sportswriters and did a much better job than I ever could. For a more specific view of why this particular Yankees team won, Posnanski offers one view, Ben Reiter offers another.

I don't follow baseball very much, I think the games are incredibly boring, but I do pay attention to the world series. I also don't really have a baseball team that I like. However, I do know that I hate the New York Yankees. I think it was something that I'm born with, or that I learned at a very young age.

This year they were the best team and I congratulate them for their victory, but it doesn't make me very happy. I have just a two quick things to say

1. Is it really that much of an accomplishment to win the world series when your payroll this year is literally double your opponents, and $60,000,000 more than the next closest team in baseball? The Yankees carry guaranteed contracts worth nearly $1,000,000,000 (yes that's a billion dollars) for only 4 or 5 of their players including three they brought in from outside the organization this summer to win this year. No entire team can even come close to this number for their entire roster. There is no salary cap in baseball, so its not really hard to buy a championship, but that's what the Yankees have been doing for years. And that's what they did this year.

2. During the series fans held up signs saying things like "It's time for #27" referring to the fact that this is their 27th championship and implying that its taken too long to get to 27. Umm, no it is not time for number 27. No team in any American professional sport can come close to this number, which speaks to the Yankees storied history and dominance, but I simply cannot be sympathetic to Yankee fans who have had to wait a whole 9 years since their last world series victory. How entitled do you feel if you really think you deserve one more championship? Especially because you bought it. Talk to Cubs fans, for them, it's been over one hundred years.

The Halloween Follow-Up

Well, the numbers are in, and here's how it looked:

• 2.2 square miles
• 3 days of party
• 25,000+ people
• 311 arrests made
• 701 citations issued
• 50+ medical emergencies (mostly alcohol related)
• 0 people falling off the cliffs (they're really proud of this--there were 2 last year)
• 250 police officers on duty
• 500,000 dollars spent by the sherrif's office
• 1,000,000 dollars total estimated cost to taxpayers
• 150 pieces of Halloween candy
• 0 trick-or-treaters

Daniel and I definitely enjoyed leaving the revelry behind and enjoying a chill night of pizza and movies with friends!

It's Halloween in Isla Vista

Well, it's not Halloween yet, but there are definitely signs that Isla Vista is preparing for Halloween. For some quick background, Isla Vista is a 2.2 square mile area where the vast majority of the UCSB students who do not live on campus reside. It is also known for raucous parties. Halloween is a BIG deal and here are the reasons you can tell.

1. They have erected a temporary chain link fence separating Isla Vista from the rest of the normal world. I assume its to keep the party in?

2. The chain link fence will not be sufficient to keep loads of people from coming into town for the party. We live more than a mile away from Isla Vista and the parking lot of our apartment complex has giant "No Halloween Parking" signs. As does Albertson's and Costco and K-Mart and anywhere else with a parking lot. They're expecting 40,000 additional people. **Note: We just walked to Costco and people were stopping pedestrians and asking if they could park on the street. Already. At 7:00 Friday night.

3. Things are so crazy that the university sent out an email advertising temporary parking permits to park on campus over the weekend. The permits are not for people coming from out of town to park their cars, they are for students who live in Isla Vista who want to protect their cars.

4. Bus service to the area has been suspended after dark today and tomorrow. It reminds me of how people will periodically riot in Rio De Janeiro and burn buses. I think they are trying to avoid this kind of a situation.

5. Our friends who live in student housing are not allowed to drive out of, or into, their apartments. It should be good disaster preparedness, you stockpile your food and stay in your house.

I hope we survive. We'll keep you updated on how things go.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Part 2)

After Lisa's post I had to include one more.

The good: I just finished my first midterm (in econometrics) and I think that I did ok.
The bad: I think everyone else did just as well as I did. Or maybe even better.
The ugly: I still have two more midterms to go, Monday and Wednesday of next week, and they will be harder.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good: We are officially over the halfway mark for our first quarter of graduate school education, and still going strong!

The Bad: That means Daniel has midterms this week.

The Ugly: I still have 65 pages of essays to write, and a good 3,000 pages to read.

The Good: We came within $75 of staying within our budget this month, which is impressive--it was a very ambitious budget.

The Bad: There are still 3 days left...

The Ugly: Nearly all of the discrepancy can be explained just by looking at the "Fast Food" category. Yep, cooking is not my top priority.

The Good: We only filled up the gas tank in our car once all month.

The Bad: This was only possible because we never found time to make it to any of the nice beaches or to the LA temple this month.

The Ugly: For some reason, Daniel and I both frequently get very nauseous on the bus ride to school.

The Good: The weather here is still usually a delightful "sunny with a high of 75".

The Bad: I kind of miss the brisk fall feeling I usually associate with school, and especially the incredible fall colors in Provo.

The Ugly: I have some absolutely terrible tan lines from spending so much time reading out by the pool (most of them dictated by our first visit to the beach, where I burned really badly and in really funky places--apparently I never really learned how to apply sunscreen evenly--we're talking finger outlines on my shoulders.)

The Good: Daniel and I just finished watching the first 3 seasons of 30 Rock on Netflix.

The Bad: Daniel and I just finished watching the first 3 seasons of 30 Rock on Netflix.

The Ugly: This means we have added one more show to the already too long list of things we watch weekly as they come up online. (We do have to do something mindless every once in a while!)