Student SPHere 2008-09

I finished my final midterm this morning. Overall, I think it went well, although I'm uncertain about the script for converting dates into Stata-formats. At any rate, a lot of stress has been lifted off my shoulders, allowing me to blog.

Tuesday of last week Hillary Clinton came to town to speak at a rally for Al Franken. Although I wanted to hear her speak, I figured that there were going to be A LOT of people going. Waiting in lines and being part of a crowd rank low on how I like spending my time. Then Thuy pursuaded me to "stop by," which is how we ended up listening to the speakers out in the cold. The McNamara Alumni Center filled up quickly, but there were around two hundred other people outside.

While I ended up leaving before Clinton spoke, I was able to listen to a lot of passionate local politicians. They were able to rouse my political spirits with their great speaking abilities. Among some of them were state senator Amy Klobuchar and mayor RT Ryback. The photos below are courtesy of Michelle.

Group shot with the mayor!

Franni Franken and Amy Klobuchar.

This past weekend my parents drove from Illinois in order to have a belated birthday dinner. We went to Cafe Levain, a casual French restaurant in the Powderhorn area. Head chef Adam Vickerman is twenty-three or twenty-four, but has a solid command on cooking. Cafe Levain uses a lot of local produce and meats as well, making our dinner a little greener than usual. I recommend the local mushrooms. Dinner was followed by a much-needed walk around Lake Nokomis.

My apartment finally has a vacuum, which was rescued from the trash a few weeks ago. In preparation for my parents' visit, I tried using it. It wasn't picking up anything, even though the suction was working. When I turned it over, I saw that the brushes were clogged with hair, hair, and more hair. With fifteen minutes, a pair of scissors, and a fair amount of grit on my part, it was working like a dream again.

I am led to believe my predecessors owned a pet, maybe a wee yeti

Halloween is coming up this weekend, which is a great way to end the midterms season. I am extremely excited, as I have not one, but TWO costumes prepared. This is an improvement over my world record of zero costumes for the past five, six years. Enjoy the weekend!