Cold September Day

This morning I walked to work amongst throngs of red-clad game goers. It was bizarrely cold for September. Game day is a pleasant assault on the senses. Competing beats from different sound systems, the warm smoke and pleasant scents of grilling bratwurst, the sharp tinge of beer, a sea of red wherever you look.

It was early for people to start moving towards the stadium, but a few began to mill about the entrances.

Nora was also decked out in head to toe red this morning. By the time I got home this evening, Milo was wearing the same thing (although he wouldn't let me photograph it).

Today was also exciting because we had our vanity replaced. The former owners had repurposed an antique cabinet for the vanity. It looked cool, but the cabinet was actually in pretty bad shape and they had never put the proper type of varnish or sealant or whatever on it so it didn't hold up well in the bathroom.

We wanted to replace it but couldn't find anything that would work, in part due to the size. Given our small house we need a vanity with a cabinet, rather than, say, a pedestal sink; we need the storage capacity. But we couldn't find anything that fit our space. I wanted something that was made out of real wood, which it turns out is difficult to find. So ultimately we decided to have somebody make a vanity exactly for our space. She used a local hardwood and installed it today.

 We are super pleased with how it turned out. The sink and faucet are new too. Stuff like this is what keeps us tied to our little house; nowhere we moved would have a vanity like that.

Today I got my slides ready for a talk I have to give in Bloomington on Thursday. I also finally finished reviewing a friend's draft manuscript; it is 92 pages. (A typical journal article draft is usually about 40 pages). Crazy! It was an interesting and enjoyable read but man, can you tell when somebody is converting his or her dissertation into that first article. It reminds me of one time when a couple of senior professors who were at the time editors of major journals gave a little informal colloquium to grad students in our department about publishing. One of the students asked about publishing off her dissertation, and one editor said that usually those manuscripts are pretty good, because the dissertation study itself had already been vetted so thoroughly. The other editor disagreed, saying he could spot a dissertation-based manuscript in a heartbeat. He said, "Every time I lay my eyes on one of those manuscripts, I can hear it singing, I'm an assistant professor, I'm an assistant professor!"

Anyway. Good study. Long paper. 

The kids are catching a little cold and it has me worried because I feel like this week neither of us can afford to stay home. Monday I have meetings and am skyping in to critical famous guy's analysis session. (I can just imagine trying to do that with sick kids in the background). Tuesday I have all of these appointments to try to get myself decent looking (haircut, etc.) because I have to be filmed for something the following week. Then Wed-Fri I'm out of town. No use borrowing trouble, I suppose. If they're sick, they're sick, and we'll just deal with it. Hopefully this doesn't mean I'll be sick on my little trip.