I mentioned on Halloween that Miranda had applied to the University of Calgary. She actually applied to two different programs, and today she learned that one has accepted her already. She has been accepted to the Bachelor of Arts program (with the intention of studying History). She has also applied to the Bachelor of Education program (with a concurrent degree in History) but she hasn’t heard back on that one yet.

Congratulations, Miranda!

Completely unrelated, although I learned the news from her while we were eating it: Tammy made a cake today (and muffins, and cookies)

I’m kicking myself for not getting out for my walk earlier this morning. When I was leaving, Tammy mentioned that I should look for auroras: there were a few reports from Eastern Canada and Europe over night. So I headed straight to the soccer fields, which are relatively dark and open.

Immediately, I could see a curtain of dim light on the horizon. The dawn was approaching, and starting to wash it out.

I called Tammy and she and Ian came to see. The sky was lightening, so it wasn’t very impressive. I continued on my walk down to the park where Ian was slack lining, and the auroras really kicked it up a notch.

It was a nice start to my day, that’s for sure.

The second Halloween of the pandemic is over. No trick-or-treating by either kid this year, so it was all about answering the door and giving out candy.

Ian helped me put up our “decorations” this year. That was a trial in itself: Tammy, Miranda and I all tried to find where I’d put the spider and web from last year. We’d put it away somewhere, and couldn’t find it. Eventually Tammy found it by accident, after I’d already started making a new spider. Two spiders this year!

Based on my own thoughts from last year, I added some lights to the candy slide. There still is some room for improvement, but the ratio of misses to hits got better this year. However, one step backwards was the hole to the right in the picture above. To me, that’s impassable, but to the first kid of the night, it was practically inviting him to crawl through. And then trip over it on the way out, partly wrecking the web. Some quick additional yarn later, the hole was closed.

Our total was 23, which is above the 14 last year but still the second-lowest ever. It was cold tonight: -6. Probably kept the kids from staying out too long.

And what were the kids up to? Ian finished some homework and helped keep watch out the front window, while Miranda applied to university.

The pumpkin carvers this year were:

• Scooping the guts: Simon
• Design and cutting the face: Tammy and Miranda

Ian was at Joey’s birthday party yesterday.

Where did October go? It seems like Ian and I were in Victoria just yesterday. But no, time marches on. I’ve been super-busy with a project for Environment and Climate Change Canada, as well as managing the club’s transition from outdoor riding to indoor.

Yesterday (Wednesday) night, I ran a Zwift orientation night at Bow Cycle. That was the first time in two years, because we didn’t run it in the first year of the pandemic. This year everyone was masked and likely vaccinated so we made it happen.

Ian’s continuing to grow. He’s pretty moody right now. A weird combination of bored and yet not wanting to do any of the things we suggest. Came to a head last night when I asked him to play ping pong with me and he just went straight into the bathroom and shut the door. He’s still being a good kid and doing well at school and doing his chores. Just a phase I guess. I’ll be super curious to see how tall he is on Miranda’s birthday (that’s when we traditionally measure them: on their birthdays).

Miranda’s got tons of homework these days. She just came down here and showed me her necklace that she made, though. It’s made to look like her head has been sewn back on. It’s really good. I’ll get a pic of it tomorrow. She’s been working 2-3 shifts per week at Abbey’s. She was scheduled for tomorrow night, but it’s supposed to snow tomorrow, so Abbey got in touch and gave Miranda the night off.

Yes, it’s supposed to snow. Probably won’t stick around, but Halloween might be cold and either snowy or wet. We’ve got our candy to hand out and a big pumpkin to carve. I’ll set up the candy slide again this year. Need to find where we packed the spider away at last year. I liked the spiderweb.

And then Nanowrimo is around the corner. What literary mayhem will ensue?

UPDATED

Here’s Miranda’s necklace.

Tammy was super-efficient and got us all an appointment for flu shots at Rexall this evening. It was for 6:30 so we walked down after dinner. It was quite busy there, but we were all “shot” by 6:35 or so. So far, a few complaints about soreness. Miranda thinks the lady hit a nerve for her, because her arm twitched and it hurt more than usual. 😢

They applied these neat inject-safe barrier things before the shot. The needle went right through the middle.

In other news, Ian’s voice is well into the “broken” territory these days. Lots of inadvertent squeaks and things when he talks. 😆

Today from 10.00-11.35, Tamara and I gave a presentation at the annual (and this year virtual) ATESL Conference. Our topic was how to make communication easier with staff and students using SharePoint and Google sites. I know what you’re thinking: 🤨😐😴 On the contrary, it seemed to be well received by all 87 attendees. There were a lot of questions and they enjoyed the brief demos we did.
This was my first time ever doing something like this and I have to admit it went really well. We didn’t have any technical issues (which was our biggest fear). Hooray! I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures to share, but you can look at the presentation PDF. At some point there will be a video available to watch (should you have nothing better to do or can’t fall asleep 😄) and I’ll post the link here.