The Mysterious Swirl

Well Nolan has not had time to blog this weekend so I (Laura) am filling in. I will begin with a very disturbing image. This is Nolan's beard and for some odd reason it always grows with a unique swirl. He has now earned the nickname "Captain Swirlybeard" as he has begun wearing a beard quite frequently to prevent his face from freezing in the mornings at work. The origin of the swirl is still an unsolved mystery but has made for some interesting conversation starters. Now on to our week of adventures. We began the week by carving pumpkins on Sunday afternoon with some friends from the Chemistry department. Nolan decided to go freehand while I chose to go with a pattern in hopes that my pumpkin might not look like it had been carved by a third grader this year. We were both pleased with the outcome (mine is the ghost and Nolan's is the zombie face) and proudly displayed them in our kitchen away from any prying eyes for Halloween. Our apartment is in the basement of a house and we enter in from the backyard. Last year the upstairs neighbor let us hand out candy on Halloween with her but this year we were not so lucky so our pumpkins were not enjoyed by any of the neighborhood kids. Monday was my birthday so Nolan took me out for a nice Italian dinner and then we watched "The Last King of Scotland." The movie is loosely based on the story of Idi Amin's brutal reign as president in Uganda during the 1970's. It was a good film but definitely not one for the faint of heart. Wednesday night was Halloween but we did not have any parties to attend this year so Nolan went to his stained glass class and made a lot of progress. The window is really starting to come together, I think my parents will be very excited to see it at Christmas. Saturday Nolan played some ultimate frisbee in a hat tournament which required wearing (and playing in) a Halloween costume as an entrance fee. Nolan went as a convict (orange jump suit) and by the end of the day after all of that diving for discs he looked like an escaped convict to boot. I had to work most of the day but managed to get over to the fields to snap a few photos of the game action. At the end of the tournament there was a race to see who was the fastest ultimate player in Missoula. It turned out to be roughly 60 meters and there was a hat drop to start the race. However, as most of the participants had been drinking some beers throughout the tournament, the exact rules of the race were a little blurred. So Nolan ended up starting at the drop of the hat rather than at the end of the countdown but still managed to place second. He was a little bummed that he did not win the "fastest Missoula ultimate player" t-shirt but still enjoyed the day. Today he woke up with a lot of aching muscles but still managed to help me pack up some books and camping gear to take back to Nebraska with us this week when we head to Kearney for a wedding. We finished up the day with an afternoon hunting excursion. After setting up and waiting for about half an hour, we had a flourish of activity. Nolan was gunning for a pintail in full plumage but it just wouldn't come in quite close enough for him to hit it but I managed to land a drake mallard from the group. Unfortunately that was the only activity we saw all afternoon until we jumped a couple of ducks in a small stream on the way home. Nolan got a mallard on the creek and we headed home to clean ducks and rest up for another week.