Five pounds in four days

...not that anybody is counting. But that, my friends, is how much weight I gained during the fantastic conference in Quebec! The conference was held at beautiful Lac Carling resort, which served overwhelmingly rich food every.single.meal. And then we, the well-fed researchers, would ascend a single flight of stairs to sit on our asses for the day, listening to the (honestly) impressive talks. I did go walking in the woods once, and canoeing, and swimming (kinda) but all in all it was a stuff-your-face-sit-down-all-day-and-then-drink-a-ton-of-beer sort of trip. (And drink we did, us East Coasters had a few Europeans to show up in that department. Those boys sure know how to hold their own) I am not complaining, the setting was grand (and paid for) & the company was even better. A great way to start the summer.




And finally (finally!) the massive amounts of data I've been waiting months for have arrived. So the relaxing week at Lac Carling prepared me well for the numerous hours ahead of staring at sequence data on a computer screen. This is fantastic news because I might actually have something novel and interesting to contribute when I go away to Barcelona for the International Evolutionary Biology conference. I was starting to get a complex about that - being spoiled with a paid trip to Barcelona yet having nothing of worth to contribute. So now I can breath easy, and look forward to that trip even more. It looks like my girlfriend and I will be in Barcelona for a week, and then Prague for another week. We had to skip Budapest since it was incredibly expensive to get out of the city back to Scotland, where we depart over the Atlantic. Hopefully the empty flat we were offered by a mutual friend will not go to waste :(

As for the house... we're moving stuff into it this weekend whether it is ready or not. We may not actually be sleeping in it, or showering in it, but the process will begin. While I was away, the kitchen countertops and vanity were installed, and the limestone was laid on the floor. The tiles have yet to be grouted, which is tricky since they aren't supposed to be walked on for a few days afterwards. Also, the trench for the well line was dug out, and I'm extra happy about that since I was able to get a price half as much as was originally quoted (from the excavator who did our back yard...grrr) by calling up the guys down the road (who don't normally do residential) and sweet talking them into "helping a neighbour". I can use the extra four hundred bucks on my trip now!! :) Sneaky.

And lastly, while BLASTing my sequence data, I was multi-tasking on the telephone with Canada Post. I've never lived somewhere where the mail went to a PO Box rather than the civic address so I wanted to call far enough ahead of the move to ensure a mailbox could be secured. The lady on the phone had no idea what I was talking about. She couldn't tell me where my neighbours pick up their mail, or who I might contact about acquiring a mailbox (not her, apparently). Hell, she couldn't even tell me the postal code for the area. WTF?? Am I the first person ever in this city to inquire about where/how I should set up a PO Box in advance of a move to a new home? I hardly believe it. So her response?? "I'll get someone to call you back with that information". Wow. Just wow. Thanks Canada Post.

PS How fortuitous is it that the NCBI database interface and Facebook website look the same??