Down for the count

Wretched cold has me doing half days at work (albeit productive half days, at least). My kitchen is covered in a two foot pile of dirty dishes, and I haven't had a shower since Tuesday night. I just come home, crawl under a blanket and wait for someone else to make me food. None of the over-the-counter medications seem to be doing squat. Gross.

Twenty Days

I invigilated a mid-term this morning for a cesspool of viral infections called "undergrads".

Their germs had already found me, though. On Saturday I felt yucky and made myself drink orange juice, Sunday I forced myself to relax in a hot bath for three hours and last night I tried to reduce virus loads by gargling with salt water/using a Neti pot and swallowing tons of Ginseng extract.

I guess I beat last year's count: this time it took a whopping 20 days to catch "the undergrad cold".

As an aside, it struck me just how homogenous my place of work is. Of the fourteen students I was overseeing this morning, there were:

two* boys: James & Micheal
twelve girls:
Two Jessicas
Two Sara(h)s
Two Kat(e)s
An Anna & a Brianna & a Cassandra
An Emily & a Haylee
One lone Lauren

* This still didn't stop my fellow invigilator from explaining that we would be recording their setting arrangement to guard against cheating, by using the phrase "looking at the guy in front of you". /facepalm

In Return

In June I linked to Teri Thorton's version of Nature Boy....but I think I have found a new favourite version. Shara Worden for the win yet again!

So. Predictable.

Moralizing

I really love this video:

Things seen and heard

While re-writing and improving a section of my lab book, I found this exact sentence: "RT-PCR notes: First set of tubes should be a serial dilution to test the awesomeness of your primers"

While walking down the sidewalk this morning, I spotted a frail-looking undergrad struggling with four bags of groceries. Bitchily, I thought "Gimme a break, you don't eat food"

While re-assessing the need for my 14 departmental keys, I found a key I couldn't place. Clearly wasn't a university DO NOT COPY key so I tried it in my front door lock. Yup. I've lived in our house for two years and have never locked the front door once. Didn't even know I had the key!

divided by ten

on the bandwagon

Time Management

The harvest season is upon us. I have bags of fresh kale to dry, tomatoes to freeze, cucumbers to pickle and berries to clean. My green beans and garlic and onions have already been dealt with. We've also stacked our winter wood, building a new structure to keep four cords dry at a time. The rain threatening right now will make me leave work early, but soon enough the winter weather will arrive (and with it my shared commute with my husband, which increases my word day by two hours).

So pictures for now. I'm off to work at home, then hopefully nap.

times ten

The long highway in

With sunburned cheeks

Feels like warm hands

Couldn't see you working there

Even if I tried

Couldn't sound more like a lullaby

Even if I tried

TIFF top 5

Perhaps in another life I'm an event organizer. In this other life, I would be on the organizational team for Toronto International Film Festival. I would have opportunity to rub shoulders with the celebrities that, in my current life, I just read about on the internet. Who would I throw my charm at during the 2011 TIFF festival? Oh well let me tell you.

The top three are stately (handsome) men, mentioned before on this very blog:

Spot 1: Jon Hamm, with his great comedic timing and hockey knowledge, pictured here with his slightly plastic-looking long-term partner:

Spot 2: Ewan McGregor, the free-wheeling (yet adorably married), ruddy Scotsman who always picks really cool roles to play and once toured the world on a motorcycle. Pictured here in downtown TO:

Spot 3: And of course Clive Owen, accented and rumply in his black suit at his newest movie's gala. He usually doesn't smile as much, but he's a devoted family man:

The other two spaces are more fluid and interchangeable.

Spot 4: For a long while, Ryan Gosling occupied spot number four, but lately he's not been doing it for me. He really bulked up for some roles, and I prefer them lean. He's also made the rounds with half a dozen young starlets, which dampens his allure. Time to replace his Canuck ass with another fellow countryman. So for this TIFF, in which I'm an imaginary organizational guru in stunning heels, I would probably follow Scott Speedman around like a puppy. He has actually toned down the bulky muscles and has great forearms (I am SUCH a sucker for nice forearms on a dude). Plus, to my geeky heart, he'll always be the good looking werewolf from Underworld (...I won't even link to a trailer, it's that cheesy). Pictured here spiffed up for a premiere and all smiles outside his hotel in Toronto:

Spot 5: might have been taken up by Ben Affleck IF he had attended the festival. But since he didn't, and I've met my quota for stubble-faced dudes, I think I would just try my luck with Olivia Wilde. She appears to have thoughts in her head, was married in the desert at Burning Man, has fantastic collarbones and played a doctor on TV. My standards are low I guess, because I would fling some flirt her way:

Now back to work. Real work. Not the imaginary kind.

Consumed

Every time I look at the bookshelf overflowing with cracked CD cases, I curse myself for not just uploading the whole thing onto a single 8 GB USB drive (or two, one at the office for safekeeping) and selling the hundreds of CDs. I want to actively clear out my STUFF so that I have more room to LIVE. This article reminded me of that fact:

My $10,000 storage unit mistake

Head first into the waterfall

I've had the same song stuck in my head now for...ohhh....three weeks. It hurts.

random photos

('Cause the last post was text heavy)

Administrators, in all their lack-of-foresight, are going to tear down this building this year:

My cat looks like a cartoon:

Proof we aren't in Germany anymore (these cost $1.75 over there):

We ate so much bread, cheese, chocolate and beer when away, I couldn't wait to have actual vegetables again. Here are some of the components from our CSA package:

Once veggies from our own garden were added, plus some beans for protein, we had the loveliest looking stir-fry around:

Enough for two nights even! On the second night, we added even more fried green beans (with cashews) and seas scallops to round out the protein. Didn't want rice again, so our carb portion of the meal was fulfilled by a couple of beers (Clancy's for him, St.Ambroise Oatmeal Stout for me):

shirking

Today marks one week back from vacation, which slashed my enthusiasm for regular life.

The timeline goes thusly:

Return midnight on Thursday, jet lag.

Wake up early Friday (jet lag), eat chocolate for breakfast, then nutella on a white bun. Deign to visit my lab for three measly hours from noon until...the bar opens downtown. Proceed to drink beer on the patio from 3-6:30 pm, vainly trying to recapture the Biergarten atmosphere. Fail. Fall asleep on the couch at 8 pm.

Wake up early Saturday (jet lag). Drag my ass to the market, yard sales, visiting friends. Basically do anything that keeps me from going home and actually being productive. Eventually come home to a giant pile of cord wood and an overgrown garden. Go inside on a sunny day, and watch TV/movies until I fall asleep on the couch at 9 pm.

Wake up early Sunday (jet lag). Lounge around doing nothing, watch some more movies. My mother, in a fit of pity, comes over to get my ass into gear. I reluctantly tackle the chicken coop with her help, manage to get it clean. My in-laws and nephew arrive for supper, which I don't lift a finger to help make. They feed me, and help my husband finish the wood shed so that we can start stacking wood. Visit with friends in the evening in an attempt to stay awake past 9 pm. Partial win, but only late at night.

Wake up Labour Day Holiday, drag my ass to the couch, start YET ANOTHER MOVIE. I am so lazy. I get a talking to by my husband. He says something along these lines: "it was okay to do nothing for three days, but honey, it's time to do something. Anything. Get off the couch." So I'm guilted into stacking wood in the sweaty heat, swatting mosquitoes who seem particularly adamant. Go to lunch with friends, and supper with more friends. Itty-bitty Win.

On Tuesday my new coworker started, so at least there was a given task-list: get him keys, a password for the computers, a soft copy of all the protocols, an email address, a tour of campus, etc, etc.

I still want to eat chocolate slathered in nutella for breakfast though.

Addendum: The Movie Review (out of five stars)

The Adjustment Bureau: 4.5/5

The Hurt Locker: 4/5

The Darjeeling Limited: 4/5

Adam: 2.5/5

Lord of War: 3/5

I Love You Phillip Morris: 3.5/5

Incommunicado