Some onna my house, I'm gonna give you candy

I am eagerly awaiting distraction from my thesis by cute little goblins. I have playdoh and comic books for the oncoming tiny hordes...me hee...

Happy Halloween everybody :)

Writer's Block

I have hit a brick wall trying to write up my data.
I've stared at it for days...trying this and that. Getting all worked up. Stressing out over the fact that in 3 days I have to have some sort of outline for my supervisor as to details of what I want to say.

And what do I want to say?
Hells if I know.

All I know is my husband and all my friends are out for halloween and I am at home drinking lychee cocktails and trying to make my brain produce a few lines of intelligence so that I can take off my birthday tomorrow without guilt. J *is* technically doing lights at the party, but...
All I know is I have nearly nothing to show for days of work. I really need to figure this out. How I will not think about it tomorrow and relax is utterly beyond me...here's hoping I can.

Cuz this is just brutal...

Zombies! Run!

I wish I still ran regularly so I could play this game/app: Zombies, Run! It's an app for your phone that works with the GPS feature to track your run distance, and is paired up with an online game. As you run, distance can be used to get medical supplies, ammo and other things for your group of survivors...apparently there are downloadable tracks where you can build your own running soundtracks interspersed with "news" stories and information about the zombie apocalypse or (eep) be chased by hordes of zombies.

Why are there not more interactive fitness games like this? Why can't you have fun while you're active? This is freaking awesome. I may have to start a weekly run/walk just to try this out and hope my knee is agreeable. I have learned that I am apparently getting an iPhone to go with my shiny new job...so I should make sure I know the complete functionality of it shouldn't I? You know...for science? :)
I always joke that I stay fit so I can outrun the zombies when they come...this is the closest I may get...

"And just look at what you've won!!!"

Yesterday at the end of my workday I was called up to a meeting where I was given a shiny letter of offer - yes indeedy! I got the job I interviewed for last week! I have to pick a start date, but it will be much sooner than expected. Likely mid-november. Meep! I'll be quiet about it at work until I can hand in a proper letter of resignation so I don't offend anyone, but hot damn! I did it!
I really did it. I
t wasn't until I walked up to get the news that I realised how much I wanted this new job. How I would have been so terribly disappointed to not get it.

*grin*

To celebrate, J and I went out for El Salvadorian food at a favourite local place. Mmmm...I had cheese stuffed peppers and rice and beans and horchata and one damn fine mojito to toast my brilliance :). THEN, as luck would have it, J scored tickets to a play, so we took the night off to celebrate. The play was FANTASTIC. We saw Nevermore -It's a morbid musical on the life of Edgar Allen Poe by a theatre company from Edmonton. Creepy and dark and very Tim Burtoney in costume style with dark humour. I absolutely loved it. Perfect Halloween entertainment.

Now today begins the handing in my resignation (I've never done that before...) and then picking a start date and then adding the craziness of a new job and closing down the old to the pile of nustofaction already in place for November. I'd prefer to start December, but after meeting with them I can see why they need me as soon as possible. Sooooo I have to make sure I give myself enough time to finish up here, but not go crazy, what with all my school stuff going on now too.
Heh. Heh.
Ahem.

My dad is coming to visit on his way through to BC tomorrow. We'll likely go out for supper for my birthday a bit early and definitely celebrate the new job. I can't really afford another evening off, but I'll figure it out.

Yeah. Busy crazy few days it's been and will continue to be.

This AM I was a ball of excitement and got up for boot camp class and was NOT disappointed. She did a whole class of cardio intervals interspersed with many many tabata sets of things. Oh yes...it was as evil as it sounds. Tabata sets...of lunges. All on one leg...then on to the other leg...then Tabata sets of other compiled exercises. Then more cardio. Then more tabata. I pushed myself...muscles burned...I swore...I now feel like jello.
It was brilliant :)

I am truly grateful for everything right now.
I am trying not to think about the fact that I now must add in closing down my job and winding up things for the department now. Update inventories. File documents. Finish up all the little things I've left to do in "spare time" which will now need to be finished up sometime. And a few experiments to finish up too...heh.
*gulp*
All the things on my "to do" list have to get done in a few weeks. If you don't hear from me in the next while, rest assured...that shiny whizz you see fluttering about is me, getting things done :)

BAM!

:D

rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock

My friend Troy has been playing a game with his son that I think is fantastic:
rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.

Here's da rules:

Rock crushes scissors
Paper covers rock
Scissors cut paper
Rock crushes lizard
Lizard poisons Spock
Spock smashes scissors
Scissors decapitate lizard
Lizard eats paper
Paper disproves Spock
Spock vaporizes rock.

Where's a 7 year old when I need one...

Sister Awake

As I write this, there is a guy who looks alarmingly like the lead singer from the Tea Party doing an energy rating retest on my home. There is some weird red mesh cover over my front door and a giant fan with a big set of guages measuring how airtight my house is. Yes my friends, there's a number of government rebates you can get for installing a furnace (and other things like water heaters and windows) if you allow ex-rockers who are certified by the government to come into your home and show how your new *insert home energy reno here* makes your house more efficient. I'm hoping we'll get a bit of change back from the government for all this. Anything to ease the pain of the new furnace install will be greatly appreciated.

Once this is done, rather than go back to work I do believe I'm going to work on my MSc from home for the rest of the day... and drink my weight in tea.

Happy monday my good peeps...

C is for cookie that's good enough for me

Tomorrow night, a week early, we are having a bonfire. Partly for my birthday, partly for a friend who is moving to Toronto (sniff) and partly as a thanks for the crew who works on J's music show. I just made pumpkin cookies for it and I'm trying very hard not to eat them all. (mmm...cakey goodness).
Weather should be not too evil and we have lots of wood. It's become an annual thing and a nice way to close off fall and have one last outdoor shindig before the snow comes. Altho I have grand images of wildly dancing around a hug bonfire, it will likely be a guitar being passed around some smiling people, some beer, hot cocoa and munchables and a relaxing evening. This weekend will be a lot of work on my project and wondering if I get the job I interviewed for today. Things went VERY well with that, so it seems to be a very good chance I could get the job...and that it would perhaps start sooner than I'd imagined. Which is OK in a way. I'm hoping I could convince them that December is a good time to start...so my brain doesn't combust with a new job and trying to get permission to write my thesis in November. I could do it...I'd jsut rather stagger my insanity into reasonable large chewy chunks instead of a huge forcefeeding nozzle of stress.
We shall see...that would be upcoming. Why worry about what might not even be.

I am tactfully ignoring my project, but I think I'll do a bit of tallying before I bumble off to sleep. Tomorrow is my friday off of work (new job wouldn't have those...sniff) so I'm heading in for a full day of MSc instead of job. Here's hoping I can get lots done. I'd be giddy if I could finish all my basic stats by sunday. A freaky but exciting thought, as then I will have to try and say something about the results, whatever they end up being...

Just one more cookie and I'll be good to go...

I Day

Well...it's interview day. I've got my grey cords and red sweater on and I feel good.
Went in and sweated out my stress in the gym this morning, so I'll just try not to spill on myself this morning and then we'll see just how much I can amaze the panel...and let the world do it's thing.
1:30 PM -I'm ready for you...:)
Crossing fingers and toes!
Come on world. Let's do this!

MEEP!

Soooo....I have a job interview thursday afternoon!!

I'll be so busy going up to it that other than a bit of reading up, and finding something not too lab-shabby to wear for the meeting, I'm just going to not worry about it too much. I'll go in and do my best at not being a gibbering fool and sell myself well and then either they like me or they don't, right?

But, get excited?

Oh. Yes. Yes I will be doing that :)

MEEP!

Ah. Customer Service...

J was given a 2TB external hard drive as a gift. Like 90% of all technology that enters our home, it was promptly rendered defective by our household gremlins and after a 28 hour formatting session (that should have tipped us off right away) we backed up some photos to it and called it a night. The next day it is not accessible to any computer anywhere.
So...I went in to return it. Trust me when I say I have a lot of experience with this. Our house is a Bermuda Triangle of technology and I return many many things. Having no receipt, but just wanting an exchange for a new one I figured no biggie. I put on my cute oh-please-help-me look (don't judge...it works far better than the rational grumpy face).
Good grief.
You'd think I was trying to smuggle heroin into a daycare centre.
After much fenagling and watching them hook it up to a few computers to prove that yes, it was indeed f*cked, and no I hadn't dropped it or played polo with it, they reluctantly gave me another. They would not scan it in to get a value for it - just a straight item exchange. When I thanked them and asked if I needed to sign anything and asked for a receipt of soome kind - they scowled and said "Look lady, there's no receipt or papers - be happy we did *this* for you". Then walked away.
Alrighty then.
A hearty get bent straight back to you London Drugs...

Later:
it gets better! I got home to discover they'd given me a 1 TB drive (box looks the same)...so I had to drive back and ask for the right one - at which point they told me that since they didn't have another one of what I returned there was nothing they could do. No equivalent exchange of current price...nada. I asked them point blank if they would do anything else for me. They said no.
...so I went to the other London Drugs in town and they were kind and courteous, and the manager didn't even want to test the drive. She simply logged in, scanned it and got the current price and then said I could pick any drive I wanted of the same value or pay the difference if they didn't have one like it. They gave me a new receipt in case the new one didn't work. Which is how it works in the real world.

Having worked in customer service I KNOW the manager can do this. There is no reason for them not to in a case like this. They lose no money. It just means the dept. manager has come down from his high castle to hit a few extra keys when there is no receipt. The other manager was just being a dick. I rarely complain, but will be emailing the store manager. I don't like it when managers play power games...

On the upside, I finally got around to having the restriction for glasses taken off my license. I had time to go in and get them tested at the insurance office and I can now drive around wearing no glasses at all if I so choose.
To be honest, I already do...it's just now I won't get a ticket for it. :)

And now I must go hide in the dark land of statistical analysis. I have my final numbers to crunch so I can spend all day tomorrow staring at them, scratching my head and trying to decide how to go about selling them to my committee. 6 weeks until my meeting and 5 until my report is due. I plan to lay them all out on the floor and look at them and try and keep the cats off of them while I look for a pattern and sip strong blue mountain coffee.
only 5 weeks?
Gak...
What am I doing here?
Gotta go.
:)

Waiting....

J ordered my gift for my birthday at the end of this month.
It arrived and is somewhere secret where I will not be tempted to peek at it.

I wonder what it is?

I hope it's from Think Geek.
All I really want is to have some wine and (I hope) a bonfire with friends. Maybe even not do any MSc stuff that day...we'll see.

My brother got me this fantastic cookbook for my birthday - Just Bento.
I've been on a bento lunch kick since my trip to Vancouver and this cookbook is full of tonnes of easy practical bento style lunches. So cute. So tasty.
Meep.

I highly approve of this birthday thing :)

Twinkle twinkle little...

Today, while in the hall a girl with a skankified skirt walked by (seriously - itlooked like she forgot her pants -just a shirt really... tacky). A guy walking the other way waited a moment and then quietly sang "Twinkle twinkle little slut, no one wants to see your butt..."


I giggled uncontrollably...

Double the turkey...mmm...

Well...I'm back.
We had a fantastic weekend. It wasn't exactly restful but it was a great time.
There was much tasty nibbles and I didn't go crazy and kill anyone while cooking a meal for 20 people, so hooray for that. J and my brother discovered a great hiking trail about 20 minutes from the cabin I had no idea about, so J and I went back and spent a sunny windy saturday hiking 5.5Km through the woods by the Gem lakes - a cluster of tiny lakes named after jewels...we walked by Opal, Diamond, Pearl, Sapphire and Jade lakes...and not a bear in sight. Beautiful and just what we needed. J and I love to hike and it's been a long time...we'll definitely go there again.

J at Sapphire Lake

Sunday was Make a Whole Lotta Food Day. Dad had invited many friends over, and some of them brought salads and pie and together we all had 2 turkeys (one gluten free) and 2 kinds of stuffing (bread and rice) and potatoes and yams and sooooooooo much good stuff. Everyone pitched in and my restaurant timing skills came back. I even had a little time once the burd was baking to go out for a run in the woods to let off some stress...and then come back to wine and cheese and fruit nibbles until the big feast. It was a great way to thank all the people who've been so kind to Dad in the last year up there...and they're all great people to visit with.
It was so nice to see my Dad. It's nice to be able to do things for him...he's done so much for me that I was so glad to help with the feast. I offered brunch and supper while up there (cooking for a group with a lot of weird dietary needs is a challenge, but I'm willing to do a lot of the cooking as it relaxes me...most of the time). Lunch was fend for yourself and breakfast/brunch was on my timeline...which ruffled a few feathers on my sis-in-law, but ...well...she tends to be that way and I don't deal with passive agressive guilt trips...I just deflect them back, particularly when they're over silly things like mealtimes and taking advantage of me. I decided last year when I got all bent out of shape at being delegated as chief cook on family holidays that my holidays are not entirely for the service of others. I can cook for large groups with little stress, so I've just planned it out and then I take the afternoons off to relax - fair enough I figure. We got to visit lots, and my attempt at gluten free, dairy free, beef free, preservative free cuisine (particularly a damn tasty gluten free pumpkin angel food birthday cake) was superb...we definitely had a nice gluttonous weekend. Despite a little expected melodrama (sigh) we all survived.
:)
Muahahaha.
Monday we got another turkey dinner at J's folks on the way home (he heh. burp) and now life is back to norm...well except we have no hot water....but we're working on that. The dude came over to look at what's up with our new water heater and I'm home for a bit waiting to see what's what...listening to a cacophany of cats as they try and convince me to let them in off the deck before the repair guy leaves. (Rowrwrwrwoooooowrowor?)
Hopefully all will be well and I can head back to work to get a bit more done before I dive into my MSc stuff for a bit. It was a nice little holiday. Hope your weekend was good too. :)

Turkey time!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm going to run away to the woods, eat turkey and pie and hug my Dad a lot.
I'm going to attempt wild rice stuffing and a pumpkin gluten free angel food cake for my sis-in-law and I'm hoping for some truly tasty nibbles. There will be lemoncello too.

Oh yes.
Can't wait!

creaky me

Now I know how old people feel.
Owie.
My back and butt are so stiff from a new workout yesterday...I came in to work out some kinks this morning in Spin and Sculpt class. It actually helped. Our regular instructor is away and another girl taught and she ROCKED. The spin was challenging, and the workout after used resistance bands a lot and I've never really ahd much experience with them. I learned a lot of cool new things to do with them, and we worked hard. I pushed myself and feel a bit more and less stiff depending on the area of my body :) I feel good. Here's hoping the stiffness stays at bay and I have another good day!

Must dash...big day.

Later taters!

Tucker and Dale VS Evil

College kids go camping in the woods...near a cabin of hillbillies. Suddenly they start dying one by one...sound familiar? Well Tucker and Dale VS Evil takes a hilarious twist on this horror standby - the hillbillies are just some guys out fixing up their cabin on the weekend and somehow these damn college kids keep dying in ridiculous ways all around them.

This movie was showing as a part of the Dark Bridges film festival here in town over the weekend. Because I was a school slave I missed most of the festival this year. I did make a point of sneaking out to the zombie walk on saturday afternoon (zombie scientists represent!) which was a howl, with about 300 zombified people of all ages shuffling around downtown and over the bridge. The reactions of people cracked me up - especially the people who tried to pretend you weren't there. I mean really - to pointedly ignore 300 zombies hamming it up for all they're worth, covered in fake blood? THAT takes effort :)
Sunday night I made sure we took in Tucker and Dale VS Evil. It was a cheesy gore comedy that made me laugh until my sides hurt at times. It reminded me that life is good and was a little reward for my slavery. That and my lemoncello which is finally bottled. Had a little sample on sunday - SO. GOOD. Thanksgiving will be filled with lemony deliciousness I think!

And so I'm back to the insanity again. Yesterday was a 19 hour long day. Today is more of the same. You've gotta take the fun when it comes...I'm slaving away for Dec 1 - my committee meeting where if I manage it I hope to get permission to write, and then it's whole up with my thesis all winter.
Further up and further in...