2009: Week 9

After 5 weeks in the apartment and 4 weeks at work (just 1 for lucky Matt) life is starting to settle down to some sort of routine. The meals are planned, the groceries are bought, and after a few teething problems with the machine (not to mention wet days) even laundry is getting done with minimal fuss. We have found good local Thai and pizza, and our suburb is filled with places to eat, so we're set for those nights when no one wants to cook.

This week we tried out a local restaurant called Churrasco, a brazilian barbeque place serving all you can eat meat. The menu states that they don't cater for vegetarians, and they're not kidding. Dinner consists of various kids of roasted and spit-grilled meat, brought to the table as long as you can keep shovelling it in. We had grilled zucchini, fried banana, and delicious grilled pineapple, but other than that it was beef, pork, lamb, ham, and sausage. The food was delicious, my only complaint was that I couldn't eat more of it. Highly recommended!

Best of the week
- My actual Birthday! Coffee, cake, lunch with Matt, home cooked dinner (not cooked by me), lots of cards, and a surprise present in the mail! All in all, a good day.
- Weekday lunch with my parents - it's lovely being able to just call and make plans for the next day.
- The actual last physio visit :)

Worst of the week
- A nagging cold :(
- Long hours at work for both Matt and I.

2009: Week 7

Week 2 at work, and there's not much to report. I spent a lot of time reading, a good deal of time talking to my new boss, and a very little bit of time doing an experiment. OK, it was not so much an experiment as a PCR primer test, but it worked!

Best of the week
- Our first lunch guest!
- Doing lab work for the first time in 6 months, and not screwing up completely.
- Weekends!

Worst of the week
- Discovering that it takes exactly the same time to catch the bus to work as it does to walk.
- A coffee withdrawal headache on Saturday - it doesn't take much to "need" that morning cup...

Last day!

It's finally here, my last day at work! Hooray!

Learning from mistakes

Having done something I regret, it's easy to promise myself I will never do it again. But these words are meaningless when, sometime later, I do exactly the same thing again.

This week I decided I would not do the "last" experiment. Life was a mad panic when I left Ithaca, working late in the lab trying desperately to get the crucial piece of information that would tie everything together. I secretly hoped for a miraculous ending, even though my experience told me it was a waste of time and unnecessary stress. And a waste of time it was.

This time it's going to be different. If I work beyond what is required, it will be on the things that matter to me, the projects in which I will continue to collaborate after I leave Calgary. As for that last experiment, I am not indispensable, someone else can tidy it up after I'm gone.

2008: Week 31

This has been quite a productive week. I spent a day going over my response to paper reviewers, and I'm hoping to have everything ready to go in a week or so. Things at work are winding up, and I'm making good progress on my list of things to get done before I leave.

At home we are trying to sort through everything and only take what is really needed. It seems that no matter how much I try not to accumulate unnecessary stuff, I still end up buying lots of things I don't need (or maybe even want - so many things fail the "do I love this enough to warrant shipping it across the country?" test). It's also apparent how much unnecessary packaging we accept as normal. Honestly, do we really need one of those big plastic cases for every DVD?

The worst of the sorting is the books. I love my book collection, and it's hard to be objective about which to keep and which to pass on for someone else's reading pleasure. The cost of shipping brings some perspective - maybe I'll actually get a library card in the next place!

Best of the week
- Finally working out how to create icons with transparent backgrounds. In fact I was so excited I was jumping up and down looking at my handiwork. Yes folks, I am a nerd.
- Success re-probing a very old western blot (from May 2002!). I know this makes no sense to most of you, but it's probably the difference between the paper being accepted and rejected.
- Slow but steady progress sorting and packing.
- Moving as an excuse to creatively use up everything in the pantry.

Worst of the week
- Reading the unfolding story of the poor young man killed on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba.

2008: Week 17

This had been a particularly uneventful week. After working several weekends in a row I've finally managed to get my experimental work under control. By under control I mean that I've collected so many samples for analysis that I can't start anything new. That means I don't need to keep cells growing, so I have much more control over my time. It's also the end of the academic year, so many of my regular meetings are coming to an end. Hooray!

This week I will be working on my program for Operation Minerva, a job shadowing day for girls in Grade 9. I have 3 girls coming to spend the day with me on May 8th. I'm also preparing a talk for a conference on May 14-15, and I have to work through lots of frozen samples, so it will be a busy few weeks ahead.

Best of the week
- A sunny weekend without snow (or work)!
- Thai dinner on Wednesday.
- Finally submitting a long-overdue paper.

Worst of the week
- The looming deadline for filing my Canadian tax.
- Feeling that I'm working and living in a holding pattern.

200th post

A new look to mark my 200th post to this blog (please take a look all you feed reader people, I've spent many hours getting it just right).

The first post was on January 17, 2004, so I've managed to post close to once a week for the life of the blog. Not bad. In that time I've moved house 3 times, moved job (and country) once, travelled to Europe 3 times, to Australia 4 times, and across the US and Canada more than I can remember. Thinking about the things that remained the same, I still have my childhood teddy bear, several suitcases, and a few pieces of art on the walls that have journeyed with me. Not much else in the material sense. Of course, I'm still myself, although older, perhaps wiser, and certainly with more life experience. And I have my friends and family who have walked beside me the last 4 years, and been kind enough to read my ramblings. To all of you, thank you!

2008: Week 7

Sorry for the late post - it's a long weekend here and my days are a little messed up. We had a good weekend - we spent 2 days doing chores and relaxing, and today we skied at Sunshine. It was the perfect day; warm, calm, and sunny. I'm aching now, and rushing to get ready for tomorrow, but it was worth it.

And what's happening tomorrow you ask? I'm off to New York and North Carolina to hang out with family for the rest of the week. So there won't be (m)any posts this week, but I'll be back next week with all the stories.

Best of the week
- Perfect skiing weather
- Unexpected chocolates :)
- Finishing the French session with good results in written comprehension and writing (my listening skills still need lots of improvement)

Worst of the week
- Work dramas ... again
- Forgetting the camera on a perfect ski day and having to use my camera phone

2008: Week 5

Another fairly non eventful week, with lots of time spent inside reading. Today we spent hours in front of the TV watching the Superbowl and eating junk food. Guacamole, corn chips, salsa, jalapeno poppers, mozzarella sticks, and mini pizza - I feel ill just thinking about it. I've watched enough American football over the years to actually have some understanding of the game, and even though I still laugh at the padded lycra pants and the thrown down penalty flags, I can follow what's going on most of the time. Sadly we miss the best of the Superbowl experience in Canada - the broadcast is famous for it's advertising, but we get mostly Canadian stuff edited on top. Nevermind, everyone can enjoy them online here.

Best of the week
- A moderately successful attempt at baking bread.
- Later sunset, which makes walking home an option again.
- NY winning the Superbowl and ending Tom Brady's winning streak (I don't care how good he is on the field, I just can't respect the man).

Worst of the week
- Feeling trapped inside for days at a time.
- Waiting for reagents and machinery to get anything productive done at work.

[relatively] warm

The temperature in Calgary had crept up to a balmy -15C. And I do mean balmy - after a few days at -30C it feels quite warm. I'm still surprised how quickly I adapt each year. I remember wearing a floor length wool coat in Sydney on days where the temperature was probably never below 5C, and feeling cold. Now I wear a shorter coat and less layers on much colder days (although I've resigned myself to beanies and gloves which I NEVER would have worn in Australia).

At home we've been battling some randomly frozen pipes. The hot water is fine, but we currently have no cold water feeding the shower (the bath is OK again after hot-water-only evening when I waited over an hour for the bath to cool enough to get in). It's all a bit of a mystery; we can see the pipes in the basement, 9 of them running in a bundle. Somewhere as they run through the house (maybe through the unheated garage?) some of them have frozen while the adjacent pipes are fine. Go figure.

Talking about the weather is such a cliché that I feel a little bad having mentioned it so often lately. Sorry for the string of monotonous posts...

2008: Week 4

It turns out that the chilly weather I wrote about last week was just the beginning of the cold - tonight as I write the temperature is -27.3C with the wind chill bringing us down to -43C. To give you some idea of the sudden temperature changes in Calgary, yesterday we had a high of 3.9C.

This week has been a strange mix of quiet and noisy. Matt spent most of the week in Toronto, so I had lots of time to myself (which I spent going to French classes, cleaning, and reading). However our house has been even crazier than normal. Our household of 5 swelled to 7 as we had two friends staying while looking for places to live in Calgary. Even after more than a year it's quite a shock to go from living alone to living here.

Best of the week

- Making progress on a book I've been reading for months.
- The satisfaction of completing tasks that I've been putting off for a while (vacuuming, writing).
- Long phone calls to Australia.

Worst of the week

- Listening to a lecture in French, and being reminded how far there is to go before I understand everything.
- Facing the prospect of heading to work when the thermometer is reading -32.2C.

Wednesday

Time for a mid-week update. The first day back at work was better than expected, and it took until today for the usual pattern of last minute requests and agenda-less meetings to recur. Our floors are being stripped and polished on the weekend, which requires all the lab furniture to be moved. Dust and experiments don't mix well, so it's mostly a week for reading and catching up on paperwork. The biggest achievement has been completing some work I had left from Cornell - it feels mighty fine to have that off my back.

We're back at French classes too. I was rather rusty at first, but it started to come back, and our new teacher is putting an emphasis on listening, which is my weakest area. I have also resolved to try and speak French at work with my colleague from Paris - it would be silly to miss the opportunity, but it's still scary to open my mouth and speak.

Three

I sat alone on the balcony.
I sat alone on the balcony and watched the moon rise through the sunset; large and pale through pink clouds, then free, bright in the evening sun.
I sat alone on the balcony watching the moon rise, and drank a toast to what was but is no more.
I sat alone on the balcony in the moonlight, port in my hand, and memories in my heart.

I sat on the balcony and remembered that I was not alone.

Thank you everyone who has remembered with me today.

Calgary update

Time for an update on life in Calgary. Life in our little house is good - I'm getting used to all the testosterone (3 men plus their friends), and I think they're getting used to having a girl in the house. Actually, they might be having more influence on me than the reverse - tonight I have the place to myself and I'm sitting watching the hockey in HD! Calgary are 2-1 against Chicago as I type.

The weather has been all over the place, over 10C during the weekend, but down below -10C today. The predicted high for Friday is a chilly -13C! Yesterday I bought myself a new tuque and mittens, so I'm ready for anything.

The coffee scene is pretty dismal compared to Ithaca. Tim Hortons provide staple fresh coffee, but it's nothing compared to a good latte from Gimme! A little easier on the wallet though. On Saturday I visited Bumpy's for a real coffee - textured milk, none of that awful Starbucksesque foam, and a rosetta. Bliss, but unfortunately too far away to make a daily ritual.

Work is work, but unlike Ithaca I'm working pretty normal hours. It's quite a treat to be home by 6pm each night! The University HR department is pretty "relaxed", so I still don't have an ID card for after hours access to the building. I'm not in any hurry, although an email address might come in handy.

That's about all the news for now. Less than four weeks before Matt and I hit the heat shock of our Christmas holiday. Can't wait!