Blizzard!!

Sidney and I then headed to my parents' house in the midst of an icy and snowy weather event. To fully wake me up, I had a Sidney blueberry muffin for breakfast. 

We then set out, and a drive that normally takes about 40 minutes took just under an hour. But we made it. Soon after we got there, it started snowing on top the ice that already covered the driveway, which made for great fun:

Initially, we were going to head up to Big Lake for my dad's family's Christmas family reunion, but the roads were too slippery and there were too many accidents to risk the drive. But sliding on snow and/or ice is one of my favorite winter pastimes. I can recall many days of winters past that I would spend running and sliding down snowy sidewalks, the sides of stairs, and down snowy hills on my feet. Sure, there were a few falls, but that's just part of it. I even taught Andrew the joy that is sliding in the snow.

But sliding aside, another pleasure I like to partake in is the eating of cookies. Interestingly, Sidney had made a whole batch of cookie for our family Christmas reunion, and since we couldn't go to that, we had a whole tub of cookies that were all ours!

We also had a cake that my parents had made! We were in dessert heaven due to the weather.

My dad made his black oil cake, and my mom made some cream cheese frosting. The cake fell a little in the middle, so that made for some extra thick frosting in the middle! I'm not complaining!

I had a smallish piece since I didn't want to ruin my dinner!

We then ventured across the street to our local Irish pub.

I ordered a Scotch egg for an appetizer.

And, keeping with the authentic Irish cuisine, I ordered their prime rib special with mashed potatoes and french fries.

The steak wasn't the best I'd ever had, but I didn't expect it to be. It was still good, though. My only complaint is that au jus was a little weak. The fries were really good, and for them I ordered some ketchup (homemade), ranch, and mayonnaise.

By the time we left the restaurant, it was a veritable blizzard outside. It wasn't necessarily snowing that hard, but it was snowing nevertheless. The wind was blowing at what seemed like 100 mph, and it was cold. Like, really cold. Like so cold that it was uncomfortable to be outside for more than 1 ms. Plus, the wind was blowing already fallen snow around, which only made things worse. So all I wanted to do was go home and eat cake. So I did.

This cake and frosting combination led me to proclaim that cream cheese frosting is my new favorite frosting. It's not so sweet that it gets to be too rich, and it just tastes so good because cream cheese. Seriously, that's the only explanation required. Cream cheese frosting is the best frosting because cream cheese.

Final Final! (And HUGE day)

Well, this is it. This is where it ends. This is the culmination of the last 9 semesters, the last 4.5 years of my life. This is the last day of my undergraduate college career. After today, I will officially have my Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Kansas. It's been a defining time in my life. I've made some good friends, I met my future wife, I grew as a person while at KU. I acquired a depth of knowledge that I couldn't previously imagine was even possible. I went through some trying times for sure, but those times helped me figure out what exactly it takes to succeed. This experience showed me that you really can achieve what you want to achieve. And I know that this is "only" undergrad, but for me personally, it represents more than what it literally is. A lot of what I went through can be applied to anything in life. So even though my experiences have been specific, they have very general applications, at least in my own opinion. With that, I went in and took my final final examination. I went through it methodically, almost relishing the moment and knowing that it would be my last such experience, at least for quite a while. When I finished the exam, I handed it to the professor, thanked her for a great semester, and walked out of an undergraduate college classroom for the last time as a student. As I was walking down the hall, I couldn't help but raise my hands in the air as this sense of pure joy rushed over me.

I then drove to Overland Park to meet Quinn and Ray at Ruchi for a nice reunion. Quinn had just returned from Costa Rica a couple days prior.

Apologies for the Panamera Turbo S photobomb.

But then it was time for hugeness. I got 2 plates of GIANT and a cup of mango lassi to start off with.

And then it was time for dessert. I got huge, don't worry.

This was a good way to celebrate the end of my college career. And in passing, I mentioned that while I have some time off from school and work that I was thinking about taking a trip to New York sometime. Kind of surprisingly, Quinn and Ray both jumped on that bandwagon as they had been considering traveling as well. So we made plans for the three of us to take a road trip in early-mid January of next year. This should be interesting...

Back to the finals

As mentioned last night, I had my biostats final today at 1330. In preparation for this one, I spent the entire morning going over old exams. I was feeling good about this one too, so I had a single brotein bar before heading in to take the test.

After taking the full 2.5 hours to take the test, I returned home, a little skeptical about my performance. I felt pretty good about it, but it just took forever. Anyway, it was over now, so I turned my attention to food. Sidney cooked up some chicken strips, and I had some bread to go with it.

I got a bowl of ketchup to go with the chicken, because I guess I'm weird and really like ketchup with chicken.

For dessert, Sidney was kind enough to share her leftover cheesecake with me. This was another chocolate variety.

And I had some nice cold milk to wash it down.

Only one final left. Let's do this.

A Day Break

Even though I've only had 2 finals this week thus far, it's nice to have a day without a final. To celebrate this break, I had a couple slices of bread for breakfast.

This was also a very calculating move, because I knew that we would be going out to dinner tonight to celebrate Sean's birthday. And since his birthday was like two weeks ago, and since I had "graduated" last weekend, I hijacked this dinner just a tad.

And we eventually arrived at The Cheesecake Factory. I didn't even open the menu.

After we ordered, they brought out the bread.

I didn't overdose on bread out of consideration of the others in attendance. But when I ordered, I was about to overdose on something else:

I love it when they take me seriously when I order "a lot of ranch." My whole order consisted of the crispy chicken sandwich with Buffalo sauce and pepper jack with sweet potato fries and a lot of ranch.

Oh, heck yes!

They got it exactly correct, and it was as delicious as ever.

For dessert, everyone rejected my request for Sylas and Maddy's. I realized that we were like 50 miles away, but still. And I understood that we were at The Cheesecake Factory, but still. I ended up relenting, and I ordered the Hershey's Chocolate cheesecake.

Yeah, that turned out to be a good idea.

We then walked down the street to the book store, where I found a real life pusheen cat that was partaking in the consumption of just the dessert I had suggested.

And now, with dinner and fun frolicking over, I turned my attention back to studying, this time for my biostatistics final tomorrow.

Again with the finals

So yeah, like I said, I have another final today. And this time it's organic chemistry. And this time it's at 0730 in the morning. Yay. To get myself going, I had a brotein bar.

But to really get myself going, I added a couple slices of bread to my brotein bar.

I was ready to blast that organic chemistry final! And I did.

When I got home, I refrained from eating until dinner. But then, I witnessed the return of my beloved dinner burritos!

I got some new tortillas, and they were bad. I mean, they tasted fine, but they were dry and subject to cracking. But that's alright, because taste is king. I really wanted something to that made me happy and tasted good after being halfway done with my finals.

And after I made these two burritos, I deemed that there wasn't enough sausage to save, so I just ate it straight up.

I then grabbed a couple more slices of bread, buttered 'em up, and stuffed them into my fat little face.

And speaking of fat little faces...

...let's see how fat I can make mine.

Just kidding, I can eat all of this food and stay lean forever.

Finals Call for Carbs and Brotein

As I mentioned last night, my first final of Finals Week is my cumulative biochemistry final this morning at 1030. In preparation for this, I studied a little earlier this morning, but, more importantly, I ate an entire loaf of pound cake.

When the time drew nearer to the final itself, I loaded up on some brotein. 

This combination of carbs and brotein gave my brain everything it needed to perform at a maximal level. I blasted through my final in a little over an hour, and I felt good about it.

I then went to the store to pick up a few things, and I had to take a moment to appreciate the many varieties of Oreos that were on display.

Seriously, Oreos are like the Bugatti Veyron of the food world. They come out with a different special edition what seems like every month. Eventually they're all special editions and then none of them are special. The only difference is that a package of Oreos doesn't cost $2 million.

When I got home, I had some more of that chicken noodle concoction that used to be soup until I made it not soup. But, again, it still tasted good.

And because I have another final tomorrow, I figured I'd get a head start on carbing up.

A big head start...

A MASSIVE head start...

I Graduated!

Well, today's the day! Today is the day that I (un)officially graduate from The University of Kansas. It still doesn't feel real. I'm not sure when it will, but reminders like this help:

I went downstairs and kept my hot streak alive by having another cinnamon roll for breakfast.

And then, before I knew it, I was in the Lied Center waiting to walk across the stage.

It was then my turn. The announcer read my name and my major, I walked across the stage, I shook hands with the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, I shook hands with Chancellor Gray-Little, had my portrait taken, returned to my seat to watch everyone else walk, and then I met my parents and Sidney in the hallway.

It was a pretty emotional day. The significance of it all started to sink in while listening to the Dean and Chancellor speak. I didn't want to get too carried away, though, because I did, after all, still have all of my finals to take. As such, instead of going out to a nice, fancy, formal dinner to celebrate, I decided to emulate Sidney. We went to Johnny's. I got my usual Buffalo chicken strips and ranch.

I also got some mayonnaise to go with my chicken strips and sweet potato fries.

And afterward, we had to go Sylas and Maddy's. I finally made good on my vow to get Graduation Day. I got a double and paired it with Da Bomb in a chocolate dipped waffle cone.

It felt really good to finally be able to get Graduation Day, and not just because of the significance it represents. It was also delicious!

When we got back home, Sidney and I split the Frankencookie from Friday.

Plus I kept it real by having some milk.

And now that I've graduated, it's time to study for my finals. Up first tomorrow morning: biochemistry.