There and back again

Well...I'm back! Didja miss me? Say you did :)

I had a great few days away. It was exhausting... but very good. I learned a lot at the conference, made a lot of contacts and had a lot of good discussions with collaborators and my supervisors and have a real focus for the analysis I have to do this week of my MSc data. I have much to do, but I know why I'm doing it. I got to be a part of medicine making itself better. Booyah! Thursday night I also got to meet my old friend Pete (he's an old friend...not old. Well I suppose we're both getting old...but, yeah. Anyways...) for supper and a drink which was nice too...

Then after the conference (which was at the poshest hotel in Vancouver - I mean I bought my supervisor a glass of wine and it was $14! Yes that is the per glass price. Yeesh -it was a good Pino Grigio but seriously? wow...) I let the posh bellboy take my bag out to a taxi (ooh la la!) and went to have a nice visit with my gramma - she turns 100 in a few weeks. Can you believe it? We spent 2 hours talking and visiting. She's still with it, despite being very frail. It was really nice to visit with her. She doesn't travel and I haven't seen her in person in at least 10 years...she's having a big party at the end of June that I can't come to, but I could at least come and bring a card and visit while I was there. She is so tiny and sweet. I'm glad I got to see her again. :)

Then J's (and mine) favourite Aunt and her husband came and picked me up and I got to spend a day with them before I headed back home to my luv on sunday. It was nice to see their new condo (complete with a pond that had a turtle and fish and ducks) and see their daughter Cloe and her little boy Gage. We went out for dimsum to my favourite place in the world - the Flamingo. We also took Gage to free tour day at the landfill (don't laugh it was cool!) and he got to climb all over the equipment and push the buttons and we got a bus tour of the facility and gardens and came home to a cheese fondue and a good visit. We also stopped in at the COOLEST scifi toy store in Langley...so many cool things. I managed to contain myself and only got a few things. I snuggled with their cat Kinkers and tried to avoid the hockey insanity of Vancouver. They're in the Stanley cup semifinals and were playing 2 home games on wednesday night and saturday afternoon (which they won both of!) and whole chunks of downtown were roped off with big jumbotron screens set up to watch the games. It was a real party atmosphere...but most crazy too. I didn't do any shopping or anything to avoid the craziness...just decided to visit instead.
Sunday AM I made us all some lemon buttermilk waffles with fruit before they dropped me off at the airport. I was ready to come home. By then...I just missed J. I wanted to be home with him and my critters. It was so good to see him at the airport...and to know I was home again. We spent the evening relaxing and I was reminded that although it is exciting to get away, there is no place like home. :)