filtering out the grrr

Well then. After a week of picking away at it here and there. I do believe I've made the house passable for company. Good thing...they arrive tomorrow :) Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect and there is still much to do...it just actually looks like it should now. I will be able to visit and not be looking about me all the time for things to tidy or hide.
Now I must pick away at my thesis discussion revision to hand off monday. I am quite tired. I plan on doing 30 minutes tonight before I pack it in. I do hope my sis-in-law doesn't pull any of here batsh*t stuff during family visit...she gets odd sometimes...and I am not entirely sure I'm caught up on my sleep enough to not have my "nice filter" in place. She tries my patience. I will do my best.
But still, in the end, it will be grand. My sis, her whole family and my dad, bro and they will all gather. Tomorrow will have pizza and merlot and visit.
It's been far far too long :)

Graduate School Barbie (TM)

  Graduate School Barbie comes in two styles!
  Delusional Master's Barbie (tm) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (tm).

Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun-filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours:

* Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first).

* Adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes!

* Two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans with 5-year-old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "Go Screw Yourself" T-shirt!

* Grad School Barbie talks! Just press the button on her left hand and hear her say such upbeat grad school phrases as,"Yes, Professor, It'll be done by tomorrow", "I'd love to write it all over again", "Why didn't I just get a job, I could have been making $40,000 a year by now if I had just started working with a Bachelor's degree. But noooooo, Mom and Dad wanted a masters degree" and "I wish somebody would drop a bomb on the school so that I'd have an excuse to stop working on this degree that's sucking every last drop of life force out of my withered and degraded excuse for a soul..." (9 V lithium batteries sold separately)

* Grad School Barbie is anatomically correct!  Experience the exciting changes that come with pursuing a higher education! Removable panels on Barbie's head and torso allow you to watch as her cerebellum fries to a crispy brown, her heart race at 150 beats per minute, and her stomach lining gradually dissolve into nothing!

Deluxe Grad School Barbie comes with specially designed eye ducts. Just add water and watch Grad School Barbie burst into tears! Fun for the whole family!

  Other accessories include:

* Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (tm) -Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!), and small bottle of Mattel Brand Rum (tm).

* Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet -Comes in Fabulous Pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. Johns Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription).

* Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation -Comes with miniature obsolete PC (pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price, tech support sold separately. Miniature cigarette butts and Oreo packages also available)

And Grad School Barbie is not alone! Order now and you'll get two of Barbie's great friends!

GRADUATE ADVISOR KEN: Barbie's mentor and advisor in her quest for increased  education and decreased self esteem. Grad Advisor Ken (tm) comes with a supply of red pens and a permanent frown. Press the button to hear Grad Advisor Ken deliver such wisdom as: "I need an update on your progress", "I don't think you'll be ready to graduate this spring" and "This is no where near ready for publication."

REAL JOB SKIPPER: When Barbie needs to talk, she knows that she can always count on her good friend Real Job Skipper (tm), who got a job after getting her bachelor's degree. Press the button to hear Real Job Skipper say:  "Sometimes I wish I went for my masters degree" and "Work is so hard! I had to work a half an hour of overtime!" Real Job Skipper's Work Wardrobe, Savings Account, and New Car sold separately. (WARNING: Do not place Grad Student Barbie and Real Job Skipper too close to each other, as there have been several mysterious cases of children leaving the room and coming back to find Barbie's hands mysteriously fused to Skipper's throat.)

Source

Joy

I've been going through trip photos from England and Scotland and I am feeling so utterly blessed to have been able to go visit old friends, celebrate their wedding and have a short visit...even persuaded them to come out for a rather long hike along the cliffs of doom...er...Dover. I have so many little perfect memories: backyard fires, drunken cake baking, and rhubarb sorbet with poprocks to name just a few. Since I lost Mum it's really become clear to me that it is all of these little parts of life that need to be celebrated and enjoyed. Life is too short to hold back laughter and excitement or turn down opportunities to see old friends...


A truly great thing is that now, when I feel disheartened and weak I can remember that J and I climbed a bloody mountain! I shared wonderful days with J on Arran Isle in Scotland that I'll remember forever. 

Yes. I am busy and life is difficult, but there is SO MUCH JOY to be had in it.

*grin*

this whirlwind life

Ah. What an insanely busy weekend. SO much got done. I'm really proud of myself. I took friday night to spend with J to relax and psych ourselves up. We went for a long walk, with nothing distracting us.

I was up early saturday and J and I worked hard in the house and in the yard. 
Sunday I was up early again and was out in the front yard weeding. I loathe weeding...but our yard was quite overgrown, and until the vines kick in and cover the weeds it needed some serious love. I spent 5 hours out there (sigh) pulling weeds and trimming trees and it looks much better. I'm glad I did it then and not later, since it started raining in the afternoon and hasn't stopped yet (probably making more weeds...yeesh). J and I ran some errands and then spent a few hours deconstructing my "thesis table" I've had a 21" monitor and all my books and notes covering the kitchen table and surrounding area for about a year now. With family coming this weekend, and me really not using it anymore on my edits, it was time to put the computer stuff back and organize a lot of my notes and reference materials. We have a table again! Hooray! Lastly I did a whack of laundry and got the spare bedroom into a semblance of order and ready for company. Then, finally, we relaxed a well deserved hour of relaxation and had a nice supper. It's so nice to have the deck cleared out and ready to use. I love being out there, rain or shine. I can even edit on my laptop out there now :)
Then (lucky me), both evenings was thesis work. I'm bummed I had to miss out on one of my friend's epic B movie horror nights for it, but it had to be done. In the end I got it about 2/3 edited, which isn't as good as it could have been, but everything we did chore wise HAD to be done and there was nothing to be done except just *do* it. I have more time this week to finish and get my results in to my supervisor by thursday. Then it's the final section over the weekend when my family visits (don't ask how that's gonna work - I haven't figured it out either). It's all coming along...more slowly than I'd like, but I can't just ignore my life completely for my thesis. I feel like I have a grasp on my life again. Last night was more revision...it's getting there. 
I will finish. Oh yes.

Ugly Mug

While in Faversham looking at old cars at the market square before we took the train to London to fly back home, a jokingly serious goal of my trip - to find a truly hideous beerstein/mug in the UK to toast my graduation from - came to fruition.

Feast your eyes on this:

Deliciously gaudy, no? :)

It's officially summer now.

Ah. I feel better.
Today I was up early to bring in all the recyclables and run some errands, getting parts for the weed trimmer so I can finish mowing, weeding and trimming the yard tomorrow and a new BBQ grill to replace our grotty old one. I trimmed back our gargantuanly mutated tree and palm in our living room and they look like they came from earth now, and not venus. They have been rediculously overgrown for years and I hadn't the heart to trim them...but it needed to be done. Hopefully they come back nicely.

After french toast, Jay and I worked hard to clear out our screened in back deck, hose and mop it all down and put all our couches and tables back in all cleaned up. Geek managed to escape, but thankfully we found him at a neighbors down the street having some milk that they had kindly put out for him. We celebrated being back and out on the deck for the summer with a nice BBQ supper of burgers and tin foil potatoes and beer. I love being out on the deck...It really is a relaxing retreat. I can even work on my thesis out  there on the couch with some coffee and a blanket. So civilized :)

Now...it is late, but it is thesis time. There were so many "life" things that needed to be done and I got most of them done today :) Tomorrow is more yard work and some cleaning of the house and LOTS more thesis work, but so far, so good. I was starting to go nutty that work and my thesis were devouring my life and I was letting it all fall apart. I'm going to pick away at it bit by bit...it may even be half civilized in here when my sis and her family come to visit next weekend - who knows?
Later taters. Science awaits...

my cat missed me

Since we got back the cats won't leave us alone. Even during my jetlag naps...Geek makes me sneeze but I luv him so... :)

Once I crawl out from under my jetlag I will post about the wonderful trip we just had.

For now...much to my frustration, I just learned I have obscene amounts of thesis revision to do.
*sigh* After reading it thru I've been informed that my results section has to be completely revised. Who knows about the conclusions. they're still doing that part.
I really really REALLY am growing to fucking hate this thesis business. I'm not a good technical writer and I have very little experience in it all, and all i really can go on is handing my work off and waiting (and waiting...) for the feedback on the returned, red ink covered document.
I must admit - Having a few days away from it was really nice...more nice than I can quite describe. It was like putting salve on a constant itch and having relief for the first time in ages.
Now, being back in "the real world" again, being jetlagged tired is making me more sensitive than I should be and I must step back, take a deep breath and dive in again to summarize it all. Because, I am, quite honestly, running out of time if I want to get this done before the end of August. I really do need to finish this very shortly and get it back to my two supervisors again for their final thoughts and revisions. I am learning how to write while writing. A valuable lesson...but one that is taking too damn long for my taste. I did excellent research. It's done now. I am done now. I really am.

I did the work. I just need to describe it to people properly so I can get on with my life.

god, I need a glass of wine...

Zen time

Going to let my brain off the leash for a bit. Talk amongst yourselves for a bit K? *whoooosh!!!*

Mighty Malomel

I have successfully bottled my mead. It was fun!

I was warned it was hard to put the corks in...it's not at all. It's just neato all around!

I have 15 bottles of nice golden goo, with one bottle of bitter dregs.

(aaaah. aaaaah. bitter dregs...)

Complete with classy shrinktops. Ooh lalah.

Hooray! :)

And I finished a draft of the last section of my thesis.

Yup. Good day really.

How to edit a thesis with a cat, part 264

Good Geek always helps... I am proofing the draft of the final section.
Good frog I just may finish this thing before I die!

End of an era

I learned today that Adam, aka AMC, of the Beastie Boys lost his fight with cancer today.
It is a shame. I've loved these guys since I can remember...a most ungirly musical interest. Make me smile and growl and dance and shuffle and all else in between. Even their jazz side albums have been great.
Only 48...

So. Busy.

I realised today that I simply have too much to do before I leave. No fair.
My mum in law just decided she wants to get together too on sunday for her and my niece's birthday and is guilting us into coming. Like I have time for that...and to get gifts...and all the other stuff I need to do. Boo.

I can't properly anticipate or plan for our upcoming holiday like I usually do. I'm leaving lots to J, and hoping he will look after it (eep). Work work work. I need to finish my thesis draft before we leave. And pack. And bottle my mead. And....*sigh*

I wish the Delorian I sat in at the Comicon worked...I could use it right now...
Well, I just have to keep it together for a week...

I am annoyed that yet again my employer is incapable of properly deducting taxes from my earnings and I owe close to $500 due to their neverending fuckwittery. You would think after 11 years they'd figure it out. Add to that that I cannot claim any education or tuition tax breaks because I have a bursary (which I also have to claim as income...grrr) and it's enough to make me want to drive to Ottawa and punch the PM in the nose (well OK I have a number of reasons for that...). We finished our taxes with 20 minutes to spare and got them in the post and now I can focus on my thesis and trying to get ready to travel to see the ever lovely Grapecat marry her partner next weekend.
Must be good and work my ass off...for soon there will be much rejoicing over many good things.

Yay.