Well sweet zombie Jesus, have I ever been lollygagging with my blog posts. In between making soup and baking muffins, I’ve noticed that a fair bit of snow seems to have collected on the ground. Allow me to be the eleven-teenth person to point out that yes, winter has arrived, and in rather commanding fashion.

And now, a segue: some quick facts about Seasonal Affective Disorder (or S.A.D, perhaps the most apt acronym of all time), which you’re bound to think you have at some point in the next 5 months:

• Symptoms of S.A.D include difficulty waking up in the morning, morning sickness, tendency to oversleep and over eat, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating on or completing tasks, withdrawal from social activities, and increased sex drive
• The prevalence of S.A.D increases as one moves further northward (ie. our entire country)
• Bright light therapy is a common treatment for S.A.D
• Dr. Norman Rosenthal first proposed the existence of S.A.D. in his unapologetically-titled 1993 book Winter Blues (thanks, asshole)

Conclusion: Move to Florida, stare at lightbulbs, and never trust a man named Norman.

Back to my earlier and highly deliberate mention of food: I recently found a cookbook in my cupboard which was, in a nutshell, thematically inclined toward the concept of cooking for the seasons. While I’m all for Smoked venison Carpaccio with rocket, chicory, sweet apple vinegar and shaved Swedish Västerbotten cheese, it’s a bit over my head – not to mention means.

Luckily for me, there are people like Christie Peters and Kyle Michael, who will shortly be opening the doors on The Hollows, a restaurant and catering company with an unwavering commitment to locally-sourced and sustainably-raised ingredients that will leave you feeling as though you’re doing the world a favour with every successive bite. Think local fish, wild mushrooms, flowers, root vegetables, house-made charcuterie and preserves, and plenty of other nibblets rarely encountered outside of the confines of a particularly ambitious hardcover cookbook. Christie also makes a mean cocktail (having placed 3^rd at the Iron Bar mixology competition) so you’ll be in good hands if and when you decide to forego the fourth course in favour of a Moloko Plus.

Google that shit and realize that you have a new favourite restaurant.

We find ourselves in weather purgatory at the moment - stuck somewhere between the sinful conception of winter and the afterbirth of summer. It's a funny old time of year, perhaps the only time when it's both sartorially and functionally acceptable to wear khaki shorts and a down overcoat. But on the bright side, if all goes as expected (i.e. if the natural progression of the seasons carries on*), the coming weeks will bring us the first snowfall of winter, and with that, the first snowball fights, sips of cocoa, and otherwise wholesome sub-zero affairs.

But for now, allow me to recap the top five goings-on of the week that was:

1. Betty Driver's funeral was held in Manchester (11 points to Gryffindor to anyone who actually recognizes the name). Ol' Betty was one of the most beloved characters of the only soap-opera worth watching, Coronation Street, having appeared in somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,800 episodes. Aspiring actors take note: it takes more than 42 years of commitment in order to crack my top five weekend moments.

2. Brandon Kazakoff broke his finger for Thread's camera crew. In quite possibly the least pitiable execution of poor judgment ever, my good pal Brandon decided to attempt a gainer (that's a backflip performed from a standstill) while at Scratch. It didn't go as planned. Now his finger is broken. Bravo! Stay tuned for a possible inclusion of the footage in Manny and Nate's upcoming installment of Babewatch.

3. Campus Hell Week concluded. It would seem that the week of October 17th-21st is the one time in the university calendar when all professors from all disciplines can lay down their competing tenureships and gavels and agree to assign a minimum of one paper, article summary, lab report or crossword. Bastards.

4. To no-one's great surprise, New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup. While that might not seem to be of particular local importance, Saskatoon's own Nanyak Dala and Hubert Buydens represented Canada at this year's World Cup, and that's pretty sweet. Also worth noting: the aforementioned Buyden's beard. Google it.

5. A surreal 20 minute late-night stroll with Geoff Warrington, aka The Man of Many Monikers, which included being followed by a fox, being offered a sandwich by a homeless man (politely declined), and witnessing a police chase resulting in a gang member being drawn from an SUV at gunpoint on the Broadway Bridge.

*High probability of this happening, considering that on Friday we all survived the Apocalypse, again: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/10/apocalypse-now-apocalypse-then/247104/.