holidays??

I've noticed where I work that the summer, when I am not here consistently (I seem to take a few days off here and there over July and Aug for holidays), is when everyone has complicated and interesting projects to do...but that I often can't do with delays and interruptions like holidays. When I do take time off I am swamped in the interim. Yet my bosses all have time as they aren't teaching...
*sigh*
I'm currently very frustrated at trying to get all my work done around my holidays after only a few days off. I look like I'm lazy when it's actually just my lack of ability to bend space and time to my every whim that gets in the way of my successes.
Just because I have no life the rest of the year...:)
Add to that a buggered up knee (no clue what I did to it but it hurts) and you have a cranky me on a monday morning...

Brrrr

Image source

It's supposed to snow saturday.
Awha?

What is going on here? It's chilly out today (-1)...spring is supposed to be here dammit. I've had enough of this quazi warmish nonsense. I'm not asking for much...just 5 degrees below the seasonal norm for more than a day would be nice. Heck, maybe even (gasp) a regular day...you know? With sunshine and the whole bit.

SUNSHINE please.
Stat.

Finally...

Thank god it's friday.
This has been what has seemed like the longest week ever. Lots do do...
FINALLY, J gets a day off tomorrow. Why is this significant? Well he hasn't had a day off since Oct 20...no kidding.
So it will be much napping and relaxing.
Tonight, the Fort Knox Five are in town along with Matt the Alien at the Odeon-this is a good thing. I do believe I will dance off some vibes by shaking my butt at the speed of sound to some great funk and breaks.
...and then veg out saturday...raking, trimming a hedge, making yummy food. Watching the new Futurama film. you know...live like normal people.

Because I'm too bleah and lame to do a full out friday favourites, let me just say that today, my brain has been stuck on the Cranberries ...an older album actually.
No Need to Argue is a great old album...and so, because the song has been in my head all morning...you can hear Zombie too. Go here. Universal is being a ponce and won't let me embed it...

Later tater..

Mmmmm...soup

Only 3 long days left.
Then the pledge drive is OVER!

La lah la la lah laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
I'm counting the hours.

On the upside, my favourite vietnamese restaurant is only 2 blocks from the station...and now that it's payday I will be paying them a visit for some deluxe wonton goodness this evening.
THAT will make the night better for sure...

Dull

There are days when my job is mind knumbingly dull and tedious.

Like today for instance.

*sigh*

Brrrrr

Meh.
It's suddenly winter here again - blizzards and -15 with snow.
It's very heard to train for a 10K run when you can't go outside :). Ah well..it has to melt eventually I suppose. I'm sure by the run in June it will have melted...knock on wood. SO far I"m up to about 6K or so, with 7 minute stretches of running. Not too shabby.
I did my taxes last night...what a thrill. We're getting abit back, which is nice, but we have a crappy little calculator, so it was a team job, with me reading off numbers and J adding them and doing each calculation 2-3 times to be sure the calculator wasn't screwing up. At least it's done now...any $$ we get back can help with repainting the living room this summer. I'd like to get some new blinds too, so we'll see how it all comes together. I may regret it once I'm halfway through it all...but it is the last room left in the house to redo, so I'm forced to deal with it. We'll have to rent scaffolding for the one wall and to do the ceilings, but in the end it will be nice. The whole house was the same shade of brain melting beige when we moved in...we've been filling it with colour room by room. It will be nice to be "done" the painting soon. We're sort of tactfully ignoring all the nail holes a the moment. The previous owners had a thing for covering the walls with stuff, so I'm sure it'll take me a whole day just to fill holes...but in the end - spiffy.
Must go...my lunch is over and I have much to do. Bye.

Vexing boxation

And so it continues...my arm is still sore and there are a few days of boxation left.
According to my boss (grrr) it's all fine, as my left arm and shoulder is sore but I'm right handed, so at least I can still work!
Yeah.
OK, funny man.

sigh

If I never see another box again I'll dance with joy. Even to polka music.
As it is, I'll just wibble about a bit as I've more to do and I must conserve my strength, as my labwork is piling up and I'd *love* to get back to it...
Sheesh.
Complain complain complain...
Whiny little bird aren't I? :)

Warning: Science ahead

A friend sent me this...it cheered me up.

Someone wrote a silly mock song about PCR...

PCR when you need to detect mutation
PCR when you need to recombine
PCR when you need to find out who the daddy is
PCR when you need to solve a crime

Technically it's an ad, but I'll take it...for some reason it cheers me up. Just to know others know my suffering and plod on in the lab...if you're not a geek and don't get it that's OK.
That may be a good thing :)

Well, I must go amuse myself in the lab...much to do.
But before I go, read up a bit on PCR and why it's such a huge tool in genetic science. It's what I spent the last dissapointing months doing. It's neat...well...to *me* anyways. You can sequence someone's DNA. Honestly...you can't tell me that's not at least a little bit cool?

Ahhhh, if only I could have magical scientist TV PCR powers...I could have done this kind project in a few minutes...instead of over a month. Anyone know how to reach these guys??? They seem to have an advantage over us chumps in the real world...
Bloody CSI...

Panic Mode

Eep.
My parent's are coming out of the blue to stay overnight after a funeral of a friend today. I don't think there's much to do to tidy the house...but then I haven't looked at it through the eyes of my Mum for a while. My Mum is a neat nut..she's a retired registered nurse...need I say more?
Ah well...it'll be nice to see them for a bit. I haven't had a good visit with them since before christmas. And I can finally give Dad his birthday present...I won a really nice pool cue a ways back, and he's been keen for it, so I figure I'll give it to him (I can't play pool to save my life) so he and his buddies can play pool together when they go down to Arizona next month. They always rent a house together, and there's a pool table in this one...so hey! Perfect...

On the front of other grumbles...J took his watch in to get the batteries replaced yesterday and now the damn thing doesn't work. Well *technically* it does, but none of the buttons do...so you can't reset the time, or the alarm so it's effectively a decorative bracelet now. I have to go in and see if I can get them to fix it and not screw it up any further. J is a picky guy, so finding another watch would be a long frustrating experience and he uses his watch all the time at work and is rather screwed without one...another annoyance to deal with. The whole reason he splurged on a really nice watch is so that he coudl finally have one he liked for years and years and not have to get another one. I have no issue bagging at repair people so I'm taking it to the repair place today to see what I can do to get it fixed...if not, they owe us a new watch (hope not...).

ANYway, this is turning into a bit of a whine session, so I'm going to cut myself off and go do something cheerful.
Have a good day...

booourns

I'm back at work.
Boo to that.
I miss Polynesia...

Again?

If one more person asks me if it's "cold enough for me" my head will explode and I will begin shooting laser beams from my neck.

Don't make me destroy you.

Stupid cold.
Stupid lack of lasers.

Mah brane - it hrtz

I just finished nearly 1/2 my data! A culmination of 29 hours of brain petrifying work...about 35 more to go.
My brain is melting...

I sleep now.

Day 20 (sigh)

It's -10 with snow today.
I can only hope this strike is over soon.
I'm tired of it.
I've dug out the ski pants and all the winter gear...we've no way of knowing how talks are going, but I can only hope they're going well. They brought in a good provincial conciliator to help, but the university and union seem to be butting heads...when most of us just want to go back to work. I can't even think how screwed up it is for the students. They're caught in the middle...it's so unfair. You would think that alone would make both sides lock themselves ina room until things were concluded. But we just walk and wait (and freeze...). I almost wish the government would just force an arbitration. Thinkgs need to be concluded soon.
*sigh*
I ordered all these cool things for projects in the lab and I want to get back and play wih them....and I'd like to have a Christmas thank you very much. I don't are if I have gifts or not, but I'd like to at least have enoug gas to get to the family's place for the holiday! If this lasts much longer it'll be a miserable December.

Ah don't mind me - I'm in a mumbly mood. I'd better go start putting on my winter kit...

anatomy study session

On the weekend I had a good solid workout - the first in a week. 45 minutes on the c rosstrainer with some other stuff after. It felt great at the time.
And I totally overdid it and buggered up my left lower leg.
Either the outer femoric tendon on my knee was aggrivated rubbing on the knee or a swollen soleus muscle or the tibealis exterior is strained...either way I am buggerigly stiff and sore.
Maybe walking 4 hours in the cold is enough and I shouldn't work out...or it was too much after a week off. I don't know. The machine in our basement uses different muscles than running...I suppose I just overdid it.
Nevertheless...it hurts.
And I feel like a whiney little girl who'd rather sit at home and drink hot cocoa than walk for 4 hours in the snow. Oh it's better today than yesterday, but how am I supposed to stay in shape if I gibble myself at every turn?

*sniff*
I miss my toasty lab...

Warning - rant ahead...

I just have a few things to say to very few people:

When picketing in a province where the cold can freeze your limbs off - WEAR A F*CKING HAT AND GLOVES! I am not your mother with a bag full of warm wrappings to keep you toasty. Yes it's cold - you may notice my winter boots, long johns and thermal hat and gloves - why? Cuz it's damn cold and windy and we'll be here for 4 hours at a time! It's only -6 and it's only gonna get colder. No I can't guarantee if there will be hot coffee for you. No there isn't a tent for shelter and no you can't have an hour off your 4 hour picket shift to have freaking lunch. No you can't bring a lawnchair and blanket and hang out for 4 hours just drinking coffee. Whining is not cool OK?

GAH!

We are here picketing to protest people. Yes it sucks and yes you must put in 20 hours a week to get paid a very small sum, but I am in this to help it all go smoothly, and because I strongly believe in what we're doing. If you don't want to be here then DON'T. It's a work stoppage, not a lounge session! Noone is making you picket. I know this isn't easy...but we have to band together if this is going to work.

(deep breath)
*ahem*

There. Ah. Better. Sorry about that. I've had a few days of a few winey people really bringing down morale.
Things are slowly coming together and most of the people on the picket line rock hard with disco lighting...but we're gonna be lame protesters if we don't get our act together - whining doesn't inspire respect.
It only takes a few whiners to bring down morale.
We just started people!
Lets get together and shout and yell and make some noise until they hear us and we get a fair comprimise of a deal.

We are the people of the People's University - we deserve some respect.
Rock on.

Edit my painting post - the Grey Fox has landed

I bought paint to match a paint chip from the front of the house to paint the bits I'm fixing, but as I primed the places I fixed yesterday I realised the paint had faded into a myriad shades of gray...so I think I may have to paint all the grey parts of the front of the house so they're all the same.
This is getting to be more complicated than it's worth. I'm kind of hoping the bits I paint won't look absurd and I an leave it until spring, but I'm not holding my breath...I s'pose I should just shut up and do it, huh?

LATER:

OK...so I'm a whiner. I just battled the forces of sunlight after I got home to put the first coat of paint on before sunset. I *just* finished in time, like those fantasy tales. I felt like Marty McFly, slowly fading away, almost running out of time. I barely finished the touschups before the sun set over the horizon.
Whew.
...and, turns out it matches not too badly, after all, and it actually looks really nice. "Grey Fox" it's called, or so says the paint label. It's not too dark, so I'll just do the front trim around the windowy bits I've already redone, and leave the high up laddery parts until J is home...or MAYBE it'll do until spring when we can do more...(*cough*)

Yeah. That's it.

Course I was admiring my handiwork in the dark...

It's coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!

Herm.
Not to whine, but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by my home as of late.

With summer holidays and being busy and not home most weekends and a lot of evenings, all the chorey things have piled up and the house, although not a disaster, needs serious organization before I can go hide out and finish organizing and using my room in the basement. And there’s still the camping stuff to wash and store for the winter so it isn’t all skunky when we pull it out next year…*sigh*
Trouble is, all I want to do is futz about in my new room and make things. My Mum and Dad want me to build them a window and I’ve drawn out the plans and want to get at it…but can’t let myself until the house is under control. I’m one of those people who gets grumpy from extreme clutter, and everywhere I look (now that I have time to look) there seems to be something in the house to look after. I know if I try and tackle the whole house it will take me all weekend and by the end I’ll be so tired and cranky I won’t want to do anymore. And honestly, it won’t really be organized – just where I can’t see it…then when I need something I’ll have to tear the place apart to find it and I’ll be back at the start. I keep having the grand idea of going thru one room at a time, thoroughly…maybe I should get on that.

It’s odd - I see pictures of people’s homes where things all have places and there’s minimal clutter and I want to ask you all – how the heck do you DO it? Did you spend a fortune on shelves and cupboards? Do you actually LIVE there or are you hiding in the basement? ...OR do I just have to much crap? I’m just not sure…

Since we got home, for my sanity, I’ve been trying and do a bit a day, organizing here and there in 15 minute spurts and I really am slowly making a dent in it. It’s hard to not just go nuts and burn out…and then there’s things like making your bed…it’ll just get messed up again eventually and noone sees it but us and we really don’t care, so why bother?

I think I need to make some lists or something. And then not lose them and follow them!
GAH!
Any tips for not spending ALL of my spare time organizing my home?
I’d like to have a life…and not turn into my mother. I just don't care enough to go all anal about it. I just want to try and keep it together, albiet loosely, for a while and see what it's like to be in a calm, uncluttered home.
It's my *home*…and I want to *live* here…not tidy it all the time.

Full on life

So I'm back at work and there are all these students everywhere...
*sigh*
Lineups and clutter everywhere! Legwarmers and endless cell phone ringtones in the hallways...
Sheesh!
Don't the students know it would be sooo much easier running the campus if they just stayed home?
The nerve of some people...!