Phew! One hurdle cleared

Today was the deadline - quarter grades due at school. Though there were some technical snafus along the way, both Rachel and I managed to get our grades in at a reasonable hour (it was still light out, that's all that matters). That means the year is already 1/4 over! Hard to believe. More than anything, though, it is a reminder to speed things up in my classes...

Switching gears, we have filled out our absentee ballots and are ready to send them back to the states. FedEx offers to send ballots from China back for free, so needless to say we are all over that. Now, it's just a matter of finding that FedEx dropoff location....[and let this shame any of you non-voters out there! if we can vote from China, you can vote in the US]

Moving on, it was wonderful to watch NU triumph in their homecoming match against Purdue. It looks like a bowl is very likely, which makes me both proud to see them succeed and sad that I am missing an excuse to go to Florida/Arizona/Texas this winter. Flying from Chengdu is not quite as economical as from Chicago. Oh well. Yeah 6-1! Go Cats!

In other news, there was a power outage this weekend. No storms or accidents - it seems that this was a planned outing. It went out Saturday early morning, so we were darkened already when I woke up. We stuck around the apartment most of the day before finally going to a friend's house who had power. It came back on shortly after we left, around 7. No big deal, right? Well, we woke up the next day to watch the NU game. At 7:45, we had just started the second half when...you guessed it, the power went out again. What timing! So we high-tailed it over to school to see the rest before scootering into town for International Fellowship. It came on again in the evening...around 7. Let's hope this doesn't happen too much once it REALLY gets cold.

Which reminds me, THE WEATHER. The rainy season seems to have ended - there has been very little of it lately. But the fluctuations are remarkable. Friday evening we sat outside at a tea house all night long with no jackets on, and it was very nice. Today, I shivered all through the school day. I could have turned my heat on, but why use the extra energy? I long for the days when I once had double-paned windows...

That's enough for now! Besides, I ran out of transition phrases and so I cannot start another paragraph. Until next time...

alan