Where does the time go?

It's the end of another school week, and I am at home enjoying a few moments' respite before plunging into next week's homework. (Respite = drinking a beer and eating leftover chicken.) Notably, I received two practice midterms in class today, both of which are due next week. This is one of the only opportunities I will have to submit written work for feedback from the professors all semester. The next time I get a test in any of my classes will be in December, when the final exams are given. For better or worse, my performance on those exams will almost exclusively determine the grade I receive in the classes, so I'm at least thankful that these practice midterms will give me a trial run.

Unfortunately, the availability of the practice midterms did not lessen the amount of regular homework assigned for this upcoming week. So I will be particularly busy for the next few days.

On the other hand, the practice midterms do include time limits of about an hour apiece (of course, there is no way to enforce these since the tests are to be completed at home, but I will limit myself to the suggested limit anyway). So at least the additional work will not require too much of my very limited free time.

In other exciting news, Gaby and I drove up to Seattle last weekend. We were there to visit with Leslie, my good friend from college (you may remember her as the girl who got married in Chicago last summer). It was good to see someone that we know again, and made us realize how much we miss being amid the familiar surroundings of Boston and Worcester and friends and family. We also spent entirely too much money on dinner and wine at a fancy French restaurant, but that's another story. Gaby came to the realization that however much she disdains the French language, she loves French food, and so our dinners this past week have had a very real Continental influence (my leftover chicken this evening, for example, is in a thick sauce containing an obscene amount of butter). Mm mm good. Tomorrow night's planned menu will include a salad with curly endive and thick-cut bacon. If we continue down this road, I may be asking for a prescription for Plavix as a Christmas gift.