Nice afterthought

Jus got a letter from the Dean saying my thesis was one of the ones that won an Thesis Excellence Distinction award last year. 

*hooray*

One! One hat! Ah ah ah!

Just stayed up too late to finish off my pixie hat. It even fits!

Hooray!

*grin*

Operation non-nibble

I have been biting my nails again over stress from my new job and I'm determined to stop again. Oh I've tried all the old hot sauce-random motherly-advice nail-bite-stop remedies and have found that only determination and a few sparkles works best for me.
Hence, Exhibit A:

OK so yes that's my summery sparkly orange toes (meep) but as you can see my fingernails have a few sparkly glittery bits on them...which oddly is enough for me to go "ooh shiny things!" when I look at them and give my brain the 2 milliseconds it needs to go "Oy! you don't bite them then..." and move on. So far so good. 1 week in and my nails are recovering.

And, I also tried pineapple upside down pancakes by putting pineapple rings inside a batch of regular pancakes for sunday breakfast.
Heavenly...






Yup -It's the little things. :)

Just chillin

I am quite overly excited to have a new mini deep freeze. I want to do more baking and freeze more fruit and veg and like having the space for freezing water for camping and other random things. Our current ancient fridge is half freezer but isnt actually wide enough to put a pizza box in and so after many annoyed years of never having enough freezer space we broke down and got one while we had the spare moolah? It was $10 more for a 7 cubic foot over a 5 so now we have more freezer than I think we would ever need for the 2 of us. I bought local too which pleases me...and now I can buy part of a cow or bake large amounts of things or...or...

Kewl.

Is it lame to be this excited about a freezer??

Get your gurl on

This weekend I had a girly weekend with an old friend I never get to see. We have the same name and are both nerdy lab people...yes, a bit of synergy there! I admit, neither of us are naturally too girly by nature but I was up for a day of whatever with an old friend sans men and oh...it was so. much. fun. :) We got up and met for greasy diner breakfast and wandered over to the local anime/comic fest for a while. When we'd geeked up enough we set out to be as mellow and girly as possible.
We went lingerie and makeup shopping, had random coffees and a decadent fruity late lunch at Cora's and then got some sparkly toenail polish and wandered through the mall and a few other stores we never spend much time in because our husbands get pained panicked looks when they're in there for too long.
Later we came to her place with our goods and took over the basement with mojitos, snacks and got caught up on life and painted our toes. Then came the hard core all night Tomb Raider...muahaha. Got quite far in the new Tomb Raider and we traded off playing until we crashed around 4 and called it a night. I crashed in the spare and headed home the next AM after some breaky and coffee with her family and spent the rest of the day with my J :)

I love my husband but sometimes there is nothing like hanging with an old friend and just being...whatever there is to be. Such a fun weekend :)

so close

I noticed to day during my second fine options shift at the Sally Ann that the racks requiring most work were the mens racks. There were so many take off an item to look at it or try it on and then drape it over the rack and hang the hanger back up. I ask you...why not just hang it on the hanger and hang it up?
Ahem, men I'm talking to you. :)

I will say though -I will definitely not ever put anything back where it doesn't belong in a store again after doing this fine options work. Realized just how annoying that can be today :)

Sigh

Feeling overwhelmed at work today. Too much to do and too many assholes in the way.

I need a cattleprod and a bottle of scotch.
Stat.

Just chillin at the sally ann

I had my first saturday shift working off my traffic ticket (2 more left) at the Salvation Army Thrift Store and I liked it for many reasons. While it took away form time I need to spend on my yard and house (Oh, I have schemes for this summer let me tell you!) it felt good to give back to the community instead of just handing over some cash (which admittedly I don't really have to hand over). Everyone I worked with was really nice and I actually enjoyed the time - didn't seem like work at all!

Something that really struck me was that since I have a great deal of pressure and responsibility at my current job it was so utterly soothing to just do simple repetitive tasks and let someone else tell me what to do. I swapped out old stock for new, tidied shelves and by the end of the day was very relaxed. I felt like I was helping. If I had the time it is something I might volunteer to do given the option. As a 40 hour a week job it would get tedious, but for me right now where I am it is definitely more than I thought it would be. Definitely less a punishment and more a therapy. Add to that the bonus that I found a neon green leather jacket for $20 and it was a kick-ass day overall!

Unexpected joy in little things.
Gotta love it :)

utterly childish

"I don't want to share. They can't make me share"

gads.

Yes a grown man said this to me in the lab today as his lab moved in and suddenly disagreed with the fridges and freezer space that he has, altho he had agreed to the space previously.

There is a big 5 foot fridge, but he wants 2 of his own...because he doesn't want to share. He is ordering his students around and being an overall PITA and I wanted to just scream at him.  Why? Well, there simply isn't enough space for everyone to have everything they want and there's nothing I can do about it. There is no room for him to have them, which is why we got a larger one for people to share. Which he said he would share...and there is no way to alter the space. No way to change things - nothing at all. I am trying to be accomodating. To see a grown man act like this is pitiful... changing his mind...and then wanting the world to give him everything...like a 2 year old.

Lab managing is like herding cats. I'm telling you...

Leaping Lizards

I will say this...USA is different than Canada.

Beer in the gas station, ridiculous roadside snacks...well, maybe that's it's just Montana and Idaho :) The whole trip down and back was a road trip adventure, complete even with a stay in a tiny Swiss motel that had a working rotating clock with a milkmaid, goatherd and smiling goat spinning around the tower clock...

...and the Idaho World Potato Museum... I saw it and on our way home I pestered and giggled until we stopped and giggled our way through the world's potato knowledge...complete with a potato signed by Al Gore and the world's largest potato chip.

*and* add to that a gorgeous part of the world that I now have melted onto my soul - Canyonlands near Moab, Utah. It is breathtaking there. Like a holiday on Mars. We had 5 full days there, with 4 full day hikes through salt flats, mountains and green rain washes. JJ had hs first taste of off trail mountain scrambly hikes with a guide, and he loved it too. Hooray. Being with friends and relaxing with fire, good local wine and laughter...just haven't had enough of that lately.

Sunset with my lovely friends & love

 Snakes! Lizards! Even a (*gibber*) black widow...off trail hikes all over up and over and around the white and red rock. We scampered up the rock ledges to see early puebloan ruins and petroglyphs and scrambled through and over rocks in sunny 25 C. We even took a half day riverboat ride down (and Iswam in) the Colorado river through the red rock and I must say...if there is a way to make me more happy and content in a hiking holiday I'm not sure what else to add in... :)

part of an amazing wall of paintings

ancient ruins

...and a final night of mexican food and margaritas on our last night!

yes...a few zombies and margaritas and we were into the hats :)

Ah. I feel like I've been away for weeks.
Joy.

oh pants!

Last night we went out to drop of the tent to get the zipper fixed and pick up some good hiking kit. I now have a pair of shorts and pants (sale rack!) and a bandanna scarf and J has a few super light weight shirts and a few pairs of zip off pants. Most importantly, some good hiking socks.

And (surprise) I  have a little rant - why are there hardly no zip off pants for women? In the hiking camping store guys have all these awesome shorts and pants and zip off pants with lots of pockets and light weight fabric shirts of every description. Women? Nada. Overpriced shorts and crop pants for the most part and absolutely no zipoffs. Lots of styley overpriced workout tops, running jackets and skirts and sundresses (because lets face it ladies nothing makes me want to hike in the mountains like a sundress...wtf?) but no similar shirts for women. I'm looking for practical hiking gear...a little style is nice, but it was almost insulting. The only shirts were fashionable, vaguely impractical and pricey but not at all what I need... so my husband who is so not outdoorsey has all the options in the world. Which is good...makes him more comfortable. But for me I think I'm gonna have to do a value village trip after work and check out their tank top tshirt situation cause I need some more lightweight clothes...