First: work. I have been

First: work. I have been studying like mad. Harder than I’ve studiend in four years. Harder than I’ve studied since grad school. I hope this all pays off. Cert qual on Halloween, final cert on the day before Thanksgiving. As I’ve been jokingly saying to others, these evaluations have the potential to make or break two holidays. No pressure though. Heh.
The Halloween store was absolutely insane last night. People everywhere. Junk all over the place. And a freaky guy roaming the makeup section with funky contacts and fangs. We’re not sure if he actually worked there or was just really enthusiastic about Halloween makeup; it was hard to tell.
Anyway, the trip to the Halloween store necessitated a trip to Walmart, where we could create our own costumes for a fraction of the price thanks to the fabric section. Jose’s going to be a mummy. All the girl costumes were stupid (i.e. I don’t want to be a Sexy Nurse or a Sexy Maid or a Sexy Devil or a Sexy Vampire or a Sexy Anything), so I’m gonna be a ninja! Yeah ninjas.
Cardinals won last night and seem to have a grip on the Series. I don’t want them to win. But since it seems that they probably will, I am resigning myself to being happy that the NL might come out on top after two years of getting swept.
Last night as we watched TV, a huge thunderstorm swept through that was more entertaining than what was on the tube. We watched from Jose’s balcony door as the rain came down in sheets, so hard that it actually beat itself into a mist that swirled in all directions. It was like a mini hurricane! At one point a huge bolt of lightning came down straight ahead, and lingered for a whole second. It was followed by a white glow on the horizon that was distinctly not lightning. The lights of the apartment complex and marina across the way flickered out, then back on. Suddenly, an eerie turquoise glow lit up the horizon and flashed for a moment. The lights of the apartment complex and marina went out and stayed out. I don’t know what it was (a transformer, probably) but it was creepy and cool.
Random link: There is a very cool set of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos that I came across on Flickr. I’ve been meaning to try this technique. The biggest problem is that it just takes planning, since you need multiple images at different exposures to make it work.