HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We don't get very many trick-or-treaters here at our place, so what to do to occupy my time tonight, while still feeling festive? MAKE HALLOWEEN COOKIES!



I used these two recipes:
The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
Decorator Frosting

AND ... they really are the BEST ROLLED SUGAR COOKIES ever. So yummy. My icing was a little runny, but I kind of threw in some of the ingredients instead of measuring ... ya know, trying to be a rogue or maverick or diva or something.

Luckily, these pumpkins didn't get out of control like the gingerbread men did that Jason and I made a few years ago:


We also rented a couple of movies that we're about to pop in.

Last week, we rented War, Inc. and were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked it. Good ol' John Cusack, he just never disappoints me. ALL of the acting was delightful, great cast. Highly recommend.

As for school, I'm still swimming along. This week was busy, since I had an LSA meeting as well, but one of my profs has the flu (yikes), so I had one less class than usual, which helps with the ol' schedule. I'm still as caught up as I want to be in terms of reading/assignments etc., and I hope to be a little ahead by the end of this weekend.

On the home reno front, we've pulled apart our kitchen for painting, and hopefully we'll begin to put it back together over the weekend, so there's a lot on the go.

Sigh. These weeks are flying by. Christmas vacation seems just around the corner which is great and also terrifying.

But ... in the meantime ... I'm going to go have a cookie.

First Year Charter Class In the News

Always neat to see something that you've taken in school on the pages of the newspaper:

Tories scaling back on tough-on-crime agenda

With regards to the artistic-merit exception they must be referring to R. v. Sharpe (had to really dust-off the cobwebs in the ol' brain for that one), which always stuck out in my mind as being a dramatic case.

Makes you wonder about campaign promises in general (not that everybody doesn't wonder about them already). Making broad, sweeping promises that fly in the face of the Constitution and the Charter really doesn't seem like fair play or responsible campaigning, and really drives home the point that so many Canadians know so little about their Charter rights (including, it would seem, many of our politicians).

Help a Fellow Law Student

Lend your ear and your vote:

How Embarassing

For Canada, that is.

Income inequality and poverty rising in most OECD countries
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development

OECD study - Canada specific information

Income gap growing wider
Canada lags behind 17 developed countries; has no detailed plan to fight poverty, study finds
The Star

Results of the Canadian Election Are In

While there is much that can be said about it all, I'd like to highlight the fact that:

Canada elects record number of women

YAY! Thanks to Equal Voice which has worked hard in promoting this outcome, especially when we have ranked 49th as compared with other countries with regards to the equality of gender representation in our government:
Women in National Parliaments (as of January 2008)
Inter-Parliamentary Union

Hopefully this is the start of a real trend towards true gender equality in government representation!

For a little more information about the issues that lie behind women in politics, see here:
Women in Government, Resource Kit
(The Center for Legislative Development and the UNDP-Asia Pacific Gender Equality Network

Was Away for Thanksgiving ...

... so I'm trying to piece my life back together for the rest of the week.

I'll post a more complete update in a bit, but I'm so excited about these pics (which I've been promising for awhile) that I had to take care of them first:

BATHROOM RENOVATIONS!

Before Pics (just a reminder of how far we've come):




And now .... the AFTER (woot woot):


We moved the shower piping behind the wall to make it a permanent shower, tiled the tub surround, tiled the floor, replaced the toilet, vanity, sink, faucet, light fixture, mirror, towel rack, added some shelves, and painted. Whew.

My Thoughts ...

... are obviously worth far more than a penny, especially when the penny itself costs MORE THAN A PENNY to produce:

Copper coin costs pretty penny
The Star Phoenix

Won't be long now that, just like our friends Down Under, we no longer have to deal with copious amounts of pennies ... I'm hoping.

YAY! We Finished!

They're addictive, I tells you.

From far away, looks like a distinct picture well enough:


BUT ... from up close, it was chaos.



We decided to do all 1500 pieces WITHOUT looking at the picture on the box too ... cause we think we're hardcore.

Well Known, But Little Talked About

I haven`t encountered this much in my law program, but undergrad is notorious for this. As someone who didn`t ever cheat (kinda tough to do in computer science at the time), it`s nice to know that this is on the radar, as it should be:

Fewer U of S students cheating
Star Phoenix

Must Be a Good Sign ...

... I'm not NEARLY as exhausted today as I have been the past couple of Fridays ... so the school schedule/routine must be becoming more comfortable. Jason and I did a bunch of running around today, all over Saskatoon, and I feel like we got a lot accomplished. He had already done the raking of our leaves earlier in the week (which I had been putting off for the weekend), which was just awesome of him. What a great way to start off the weekend.

I'm working on my goal for the week right now - finishing up the organization of our office. I'm pretty excited about it (yup ... I guess my need for visual harmony is a pretty driving force).

I made a batch of these cookies a while ago, and they were so good that I think I'm going to have to make some more today (I leave out the coconut, though). They're so perfect and fall-licious.

My organization frenzy in our office should also be directed towards my school work this weekend, I suppose. I'm fairly caught up, but I'd really like to start organizing my notes so that when exam time comes around I can get straight down to studying (instead of spending copious amounts of time shuffling papers into an easily scannable, easily flippable bundle). I'll let everyone know how that goes. It's so hard when the weather outside is so gorgeous. Sigh.