10/14/08 - 10/19/08

As I prophesied last post, this week was pretty uneventful. I had classes, took back a DVD player that broke and did some reading. I read this awesome book, "The Tender Bar" for my own self-enlightenment, I couldn't put it down. We had a cool walking tour for Irish Communal Identity on Thursday which took us by the Old Jameison Distillery, I thought we were going to lose Derrick as we walked past. On the tour we discussed plans for Gentleman's Night, which should prove to be an entertaining evening involving poker and being manly. One of the more exciting things from Thursday was the package that Adam received from his parents. It was exciting because inside were meatloaf bread crumbs along with various other goodies and some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten (and I am a cookie connoisseur!) my compliments to Mrs. Kepa.
Thursday night we has the girls over for dinner and Brian made chicken bake, which was delicious. I put on my pastry hat and set about to make cookies that would be better than the ones that Elizabeth made the week before (no small task). I tried a trial run the night before and the results, while delicious, were less than impressive on presentation (These were M & M cookies, because in Ireland they don't believe in chocolate chips and only sell them in small bags, and I thought this was a civilized country!). I decided to "Go Big or Go Home" with my cookies so I set about making a cookie cake flower. It was ambitious, but if I succeeded it would be glorious. I made the center of the flower a big a thick cookie cake, and I was instantly worried about cooking it just right. I had never morphed cookie batter into a cake pan before and knew the cooking times would be different. It was touch and go for the entire time it was in the oven, I would check the center every so often with raw spaghetti to see if it was cooked through. It came out of the oven and it looked and smelled delicious. I then make the petals on a try and put them in the oven to cook. Once that was out of the oven, looking awesome, I took the cookie cake out of the pan and flipped in on top of the petals, completing my flower. Making it even better was the fact that the M & M's showed through the bottom making the cookie cake flower extremely colorful. Dinner was good and I was really proud of the cookie cake flower, especially with the reception it got, for look and taste. Needless to say there were no leftovers. After dinner we hung out for a little bit, we walked the girls to the LUAS and went to the Rockfield Lounge. It is right next to the LUAS and I have been wanting to go there for quite some time, but never have. It was pretty cool, the inside was modern and it was very relaxing, we ended up heading back here after it closed at 12:30 to hang out some more. Friday came and went and Derrick and I ended up at the Rockfield Lounge again for a couple hours. Saturday was uneventful as well, I did some studying and then around dinner time got ready for the Penn State game against Michigan. Jake came over and along with Derrick we watched it on the laptop. It was nerve racking at first, but I knew going into half time we were going to trounce on them in the second half and I was right. After Alabama struggled I wonder if we might even move up to number 2! All I have done today is study for my law midterm tomorrow. I seem to understand the concepts, I just need to memorize some of the cases. I am not that worried. The Northern Ireland trip is this week because we have a break in classes, so I am amped up for that. I also found out I am going to Sweden to see my Aunt the weekend before Thanksgiving and I can't wait!