Getting Ready for "Back to School"

There seems to be a bit of a theme to my pictures lately...my old-man head on a kid's body. Hopefuly this is the extent of my "Mid Life Crisis" because I'm not sure what kind of a sportscar I could buy with the $26.84 currently residing in my savings account!
Over the last few days I have been getting emails from the administrators and members of Eastern University's Cohort #3 in preparation for our first on-site / face-2-face meeting in September.

Up until now I have been plodding through the Statistics primer they sent out in May but there has been very little in the way of peer pressure. I usually work on it late at night once everything is done, all the meetings are over and the kids are entrenched in their beds. This means that personal appearance (and hygiene admittedly) have not been much of an issue. All of a sudden I realized that I was going to be more than a slightly nebulous screen name (I was assigned "phdstudent10").
As I thought of meeting other students I joined Mr. Peabody in the Way-back machine and was an elementary student of the 70s again. The Logan's wood-paneled Country Squire would make the thirty minute drive into the big city (read: Brandon) so we could shop for clothes and supplies at the fancy stores (read: K-Mart). It ushered back memories of going through the children's section of industrial strength denim jeans. I don't know if they any haute couture flair but I do remember the only pants that met my mother's requirements of (1) fit and (2) durability had names like "husky," "hefty" and "burly" ... which makes me think they rated low on the fashion scale.

On a side note my oldest son Mason is currently going through a 'coming of age ritual' that is a crucial rite amongst all of the Plains Indian tribes I have ever been associated with - Lakota, Cree, Saulteaux, etc. Today he is making his first box of Kraft Dinner. I grew up truly believing that this fell in the category of traditional food along with bannock / pahkweshikan, moose stew and fighting over who got the brains and eyes from the rabbit that was trapped in the noose we made out of an electric guitar string belonging to the (not much older than us - sometimes even younger) uncle of a friend . Each family had their own special twist on KD - ranging from cut up pieces of boiled hot dog to crushed tomatoes and enough seasonings to make an Italian grandmother suggest you go easy on the garlic. For some families the secret ingredients were held on to with a tenacity that would be worthy of Dan Brown's Priory of Sion!!! In traditional communities these recipes were paced down with the sacredness of a Copper in the WestCoast or the Mdewewin medicines in the east.

Oh well, I should go and see if the KD has boiled over yet and show Mason how to add the .... oh wouldn't you like to know the special ingredients of Logan-style KD! Sorry, dear reader, that is an ancient Chinese (Japanese/Norwegian/Irish) Secret!!! Besides I have to run out to Zellers and pick up a pair Lee pants in "Husky" that I special ordered earlier this week!! ...Hopefully I can find a plaid pencil case that will fit in a three-ring binder