Halloween

Some Hazellief's were in town this weekend, so we did lots of festive-family activities. For example, Friday night we went to a haunted house. This particular event was mostly my influence. I hadn't been to a haunted house since high school, and this one was fun, if a bit commercial. My favorite part was a tunnel with a bridge, surrounded by spiraling xmas lights, which gave the illusion of a spinning bridge. I am convinced that the bridge was not actually moving, but was tilted. I am dying to know how they did it.

The weekend included some other touristy activities, including the aquarium and walks downtown and through millineum park. I skipped the aquarium, but millineum park was cool. I had been by it lots of times, but walking through the bean is really cool. If you aren't familiar, it is a giant mirrored sculpture shaped like a kidney. The surface is curved everwhere, but underneath the combination of mirror and curvature makes for some fun optics. Below is a the skyline viewed in the bean.

This was our second time hosting out-of-towners and we are getting better at it. This time we didn't get lost going to Giordano's, and we went up the Hancock building for the view. We even did it the chicago way and skipped the 94th floor observatory in favor of the 96th floor signature lounge. The signature room is bar, with overpriced drinks (8 dollar beers) but the views are great, and there is no charge to take the world's fastest elevator up to the 96th floor. (instead of 15 dollars to take it 94 floors to the observatory).

Also this week, the Phillies are the champions of MLB, and if you are willing to call this world champions, ignoring the other nations that don't compete, why not call them universe champions. I won't get into the logistics of a the possible PSU vs Florida BCS championship, but it is on the horizon, so a good sports week for me overall. The goodness of the sports results I guess mellows the disaster that was my halloween costume. I bought a skeleton t-shirt, and the plan was to wear it to teach on friday under my blazer. Unfortunately, the heat in the math building is set somewhere near infinity, and I was sweating like crazy. I ended up really uncomfortable in my costume, and it led to a sub-par performance teaching-wise. Also, my students all thought they were too cool for costumes, and didn't notice mine. So my effort was a waste. Next year I am doing a trick instead of a treat.

Happy Halloween!