Week 14- Thanksgiving Week

Monday 24th November-

We got the results for our Vertebrate Design & Evolution lecture and lab back today. I got A's in both so was delighted. After class we met up and discussed the results of our bird experiment. We will be presenting our project as a group next week. That evening I decided to watch All Dogs Go To Heaven with Shannen, which I haven't seen in years. After that we watched documentaries about the Galapagos.

Tuesday 25th November-

I had my last Mammalogy lab today, where we dissected an owl pellet. This is what an owl regurgitates after it has finished digesting it's prey. It was essentially a wad of fur and bones. They had been sterilised  so weren't as disgusting as they sound. It was so cool finding so many bones in such a small object. It was about 9cm long and had remains from at least 4 animals. It was pretty cool seeing tiny versions of the bones I learned in my Vertebrate class. Today was the last day of college for the week because it's Thanksgiving. Shannen, Eoghan and I headed shopping to get what we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm doing my Wildlife Habitats term paper on a Himalayan wildlife community so that night I watched a documentary on snow leopards.

Wednesday 26th November- 

I got up early even though I didn't have college to write my term paper. I basically finished the whole thing which I was delighted about. Sarah's parents came to pick her up and brought her cute golden retriever puppy to visit. That evening Kate, James and Elliot called over to begin the Thanksgiving prep. James made caramel slices for dessert, Kate made the batter for Yorkshire puddings, Shannen made queen cakes for her Missoula family, I prepared the vegetables for dinner and Elliot made tea :P When the prep was done we got pizza and watched "Beneath" a not-very-scary-horror movie. It was about getting trapped in a mine and essentially going insane.

 Thursday 27th November-

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shannen and I got up at 9am and after a quick call to my Mom I prepared the turkey and got it in the oven. Shannen prepared her Mom's special potato stuffing and also regular bread stuffing. My Mom called back after a while to make sure I was cooking the turkey right. Elliot called over with extra stools and plates for dinner. When Kate and James arrived they headed to Elliot and Dave's apartment to make the Yorkshire puddings while Dave made the starter, which was a surprise. Eoghan made mash for us and because he was having dinner at a friends house we kept a dinner for him for later. Shannen and I had the dinner ready to go at 3pm, but Kate's puddings were taking longer than expected. I carved the turkey while we waited, which was incredibly moist (Thanks Mom!). After much juggling of trays trying to keep everything hot the lads and Kate called over. Dave's starter was a lovely fruit salad with melons, grapes, pineapple and watermelon. Dinner was next and everyone helped themselves. We had honey roasted carrots and sweet potato, Mediterranean style peppers and onions, mash, peas, bacon wrapped turkey, two kinds of stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. It was amazing! So good to have a proper home cooked meal. Everyone ate till they were stuffed and even went for seconds and thirds. After dinner we decided to relive our childhoods and watch Hey Arnold the movie while munching on caramel slices. Shannen was going to see her Missoula family so she took Dave with her and dropped James and Kate home. I was meant to visit my Missoula family but their dinner was running late so we rescheduled. Myself and Elliot had nothing better to do so we watched the infamous Sharknado, a completely ridiculous movie where sharks get picked up by tornadoes and get dumped on Hollywood. It's so bad it's funny! So funny they made a sequel: Sharknado 2! Eoghan called over after his dinner at his friends house so we watched 21 and Over. Shannen got home halfway through that movie. It was looking to be a quiet night until we heard that Walmart and the mall would be open all night. As Black Friday technically started at 12 we decided to go for some midnight shopping.

Me carving my first turkey

Our food line

Dave, Elliot, Kate and James

Our feast

The clean up crew

Me and Shannen having a well deserved rest (Photo by James)

Friday 26th November-
Brace yourselves..Black Friday is coming
So we got to Walmart expecting riots in the aisles but everything was pretty quiet and orderly. No scrambling over bargains like I was expecting. We browsed the offers and found some stuff to buy. I got a 16GB memory card for $5 so I was happy out. After Walmart we headed to Southgate Mall. It's so strange seeing so many people shopping so late. Aeropstale, American Eagle and Hollister all had great deals so we were pretty happy leaving. We got home after 2am and headed straight for bed. The rest of the day was spent working on my presentation for my Snow Leopard project. That evening Shannen, Elliot and I watched The Late Late Toy Show. It's an annual Irish talk show where the host asks children to review the most wanted toys for this Christmas. It's really cute and some of the children are hilarious.

Saturday 27th November-
I spent the morning working on assignments. When Shannen got up she decided we would go to the National Bison Range because it was such a lovely day. So off Shannen, Kate, James and I went. We were just heading north out of Missoula when a light snow started. The clouds ahead looked ominous but as the snow wasn't sticking we decided to continue on. When we got off the highway things started to go downhill. The snow had started to stick and it was getting heavier. As we pulled into the Bison Range we saw a white tail doe. We stopped by the sign for some quick snowy pictures and headed off on the track. Shannen started to get nervous so we stopped an oncoming car and asked how the road ahead was. They said it was ok but all they had seen was some white-tailed deer. Deciding it wasn't worth it we turned around and started the journey home. There were a few sketchy moments but we made it home in one piece. The snow was still deceptively light in Missoula so we decided to try Applebee's for dinner. I got honey roasted chicken goujons with mac and cheese which was lovely. The snow had started to get heavier so we dropped Kate and James home, rather than watch a movie.

The white-tailed deer we saw

Me and Kate at the Bison Range

Seems about right...

The road home

My chicken mac and cheese

Sunday 28th November-
Spent most of today on yet another assignment, this time my squirrel journal. I got it finished complete with photos, drawings and dried leaves. As the roads seemed to have been de-iced myself and Shannen headed to Walmart to stock up on food and deicer for the car. Shannen parked up when we got home and decided she wouldn't be driving again for quite some time. I relaxed for a while before getting ready for work. I had a whole week off seeing as my work days coincided with Thanksgiving break. I headed off early because I was walking as it was way too dangerous to cycle. I got finished really early because the Foodzoo had only been open for a few hours so wasn't too messy and my friend dropped me home after work which was great.

Someone made a ginger bread house a put it outside

Hope you liked this week's blog. I'm not sure if I'll be putting up a blog next week because it'll be during finals week. - Fiona