Checking in

It's amazing how quickly a few weeks can sneak past you. Things have been busy with work, things have been busy at home.

Miranda keeps plugging away at her thesis. I have to admire the girl. I'm also starting to get involved with a statistical analysis of her data - teaching myself how to perform a cluster analysis and possibly a scree test, whatever that is. The cluster analysis also uses Euclidian distances, which just sound cool and intelligent; that's really the only reason I mention them.

I can no longer keep up with my client work during office hours. Deadlines are starting to spring up quickly. This next week is going to be hell.

My plan to take care of Miranda and cook her a bunch of lovely meals failed pretty quickly. She still puts up with me though, as long as she gets a homemade pizza and quality Mexican every once in a while. I'm still holding my own with the laundry and dishes, which I've been fairly proud of.

We survived another non-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner tonight. It was more of a winter party with a Thanksgiving menu, and it turned out quite well. My contributions were homemade rolls, a homemade apple pie, some lumpy mashed potatoes that magically seemed to smooth out at the last minute, and the turkey (with the exception of the stuffing, that was Miranda's work.) Anything that looked nice or required any sort of skill or presentation was handled by Miranda. Guess she also deserves credit for the stuffed mushrooms, the Caprese skewers, the fruit salad, the gravy, the pumpkin & maple cheesecake, the decorating and the table setting. The canned corn is so easy, nobody really deserves credit for cooking it; it pretty much cooks itself. Everything turned out wonderfully, and it was great to spend a quiet evening with some good friends.

Now the apartment is perfectly clean and ready for my sister's arrival in a week. Really looking forward to having her here, even if there isn't much to do in Stockholm in the winter. The land of darkness doesn't really offer any good outdoor activities this time of year unless you're into winter sports, but that doesn't really work in the city. We'll figure something out.

Lastly, a hilarious comic in honor of tonight's big meal. The note below the comic offers a few nice details that really add to the story. Enjoy!

http://humoncomics.com/exotic-food