sunshine and lollipops

After a two-day jaunt to my old haunting grounds for a quick conference, I'm back home frantically cleaning to keep two steps (well, okay, one step) ahead of the fruit flies. Its that time of year. The biggest news is that we may have found our "forever house", but I don't want to jinx it until the papers are signed. There have been so many start-and-stops that it is wearing on my nerves. Suffice to say it checks all the boxes, including a tree-lined grassy driveway, acreage, fruit trees and ocean view, within a 10 km radius of town. This is why I like living in a village. We can actually afford this house here, and I'm pretty freaking excited.

Life is kicking my ass lately. I'm house sitting for a new colleague (living out of a suitcase has been my life for >2 months) where a big ass brown lab dog slobers all over the place and wants to be walked every single day. ha! Didn't someone let him know I'm too self-absorbed for such things? Speaking of which, I have been failing in general at mastering the motorbike (as can be witnessed by the biggest mother-effen bruise I've ever giving myself...it covers mostly my entire left knee area). This week I've bought a new car (upgraded from a '99 Tercel to a '99 Corolla), trying to buy a new house (structural engineer appointment tomorrow afternoon), teach little snots about science for three days (again) and going to both a local (awesome indie) music festival AND a conference in a city about 300 km away. That's before Sunday of this week.

Last week I was in Montreal at another conference for three days, and found out I'll be going to Sweden at the end of the summer. Which is great. The bad part is that I need to make the full-day trip the day after a good friends' wedding. And be ready for serious meetings the day I arrive. I guess I won't be drinking much...which I suppose makes sense as I'm the MC of the event. Ask me if I've done a thing to prepare yet. Ugh. Guilt. There is always tomorrow.

Half off sale at the thrift store.

See? This is how I can afford a scooter, and a motorcycle, and a new macbook, and a trip overseas. I know all the tricks...
I picked up Guns, Germs and Steel at Salvation Army for a dollar. Also, my third copy of Poisonwood Bible for 50 cents, which I promptly gave to the undergrad student I'm overseeing as I was just recommending the book to her last week. How fortuitous.

Such savings! I could even consider a trip to Toronto just to see Underworld. Maybe.

Best thing since sliced bread

Eat Green

I forgot how long it took to prepare actual food. I was half an hour late to work this morning, because I was planning out the next two weeks of healthy eating (recipes from a wonky "woo" book on detoxing - but hey, at least they are healthy) and making buckwheat pancakes (with blueberries! and pumpkin-seed butter!) as well as my lunch. Drumroll please....

A spinach and dulse cold soup.



Sounds good eh? Ever eaten dulse? If you licked a beach stone and then chewed on some seaweed, it would give you a good idea. Luckily, the soup (which I made this morning to bring to work) is zucchini and avocado-based, so the spinach and dulse are nutrient-packed flavour afterthoughts.

Quite a different menu then Gobstoppers for breakfast, Pringles for lunch and Rolo icecream for supper.

It's all downhill from here...

I have spent the last two hours trying to get this thing to print labels. The Bane:



...I can't believe I spent six+ years of post-secondary for this.

As if they don't do this on purpose:



Sigh.

My life today

I was preparing my salad and tuna this morning for my lunch when the bag of pre-packaged salad blew up all over the kitchen floor. This kitchen floor is sketchy, as the "furnished" apartment was lacking a broom, and a mop (well, to be fair, there is one mop. I just can't make myself pick it up. So gross. It'll sit in the lonely corner until I get the guts to chuck it). Much like the cutlery, and the tub, and carpets...I really must wash everything in the apartment. So I had to throw out all my brand new salad. Sadness.

Keeping up in the sleepy village

The first week here has been busy, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Our apartment in still musty and old, but it is starting to become personalized and thus a bit more cozy. I decided that my eating habits while on extended vacation sucked so bad I needed a re-haul, so I picked up a "detox-your-life" sorta book, and plan to start that tomorrow (many items on the "please eat" list are unavailable here in the village, so I'll need to drive to the next town over to get my kale).

Hubby is busy working all day here, and then frantically trying to complete a job he agreed to do way back when he was still jobless. The timing was wonky, but he made the commitment (to someone he is related to) and now he has to juggle to two. It means frequent visits to Hometown. Last night I went with, and was able to catch up with a old friend who has been in Ireland all year doing her medicine degree. It was fun to catch up and drink steamed milk.

The best part of the job so far has been riding my scooter around. So cute! I need to get a new helmet though, as the full face black one that came with the scooter lacks the fashionable pizazz I require in all my accessories :)

Like this, in grey so it matches my scooter?


With rose coloured glasses, to match my mood. Although really, I feel completely boring lately. Nothing to write about - no travels, no house, no plans. Boring. I'll be leaving for Montreal on Sunday afternoon, and shortly after getting back I'll be writing my test for the motorcycle license. Sigh. Life is certainly slower here in the village :)

Schmoozing...

(Part) of my new job looks like this, which is wayyyyy different than the nerdy-geeky-drinking-excessively conferences that I'm used to attending:





I ordered business cards on Monday (essential!) AND a few pieces of clothing with the company logo (I got to pick from a catalog - fun because I got to choose clothing without having to pay for it). I went with a beige collared button up shirt for a "professional" look (small company logo on left pocket area) and a white, stretchy T-shirt for the "booth babe" part of the job :) I was tempted by a pair of hot looking yoga pants (maybe with the logo emblazoned on the ass?) but decided I probably didn't need to advertise non-model organism anti-bodies during workouts. Huzzah! I'm looking forward to the conference next week.

Low-income housing

We've succeeded in finding an apartment in the village where we work now. It was surprising difficult, as we weren't interested in a full year long lease and have a pet. Two no-nos in a college-driven town. But a tiny thing (probably under 500 square feet) in an old house (don't think we'll get the queen size boxspring up the stairs) for $400/month, all utilities included. Which works well for us since neither will be getting paid for a few more weeks, and we keep blowing our money on two wheeled vehicles :)

And we are still on the search for a house. The little hovel on the floodplain here in EmploymentVillage is definitely out (yeesh), but there are a few other very cute options as well as a "bank re-po, super-fixer-upper" back in Hometown that I'm convinced is the best financial investment. We are waiting on the realtors to acquire keys, then we can get inside the place and assess the damage (very bad, I'm told, mostly mold) and the condition of the electrical wiring and plumbing (mostly good, I think, based on the age of the house). That would be a good project for the next six months.

But at least now we don't have to commute, and our cat can emerge from the in-laws basement where he has been residing for the last few months. Poor thing probably has seasonal-affective disorder by now...

Secret question of the day

What is your mother's maiden name?

So in the past few days, as part of my new job (as well as just ordinary-run-of-the-mill password expiry deadlines), I've had to remember a bunch of new passwords. And ohmy, it's getting ridiculous. It used to be so easy, a person's name (or your pet) 5 to 8 characters long. I used to just change the password when it expired to the same password, and no problem-o. But not now:



The code is nearly impossible to crack, even when I'M THE ONE PICKING THE PASSWORD.

My brain hurts.

July in the maritimes

I know, I know! It's been too long since I've complained about the weather.

Well: Weatherperson is calling for frost this evening.


Yay!!! This is just the beach weather I've been waiting for all fucking year long!!

I think that makes me a two year old

Well, I bought the scooter. And then I saw an awesome, navy blue, immaculate 1988 Honda Shadow on the side of the road. And bought that one too.

Vroom vroom vroom...



Like this, only navy, with saddle bags.

Maturity

Would it be irresponsible of me to spend 2K on a scooter (for "commuting") when we don't even have a house OR apartment yet? Eh? Eh?

I hope not, cause that Vino is seriously calling my name.

Ma Domain

Today is my first day in the new lab, in my new position (technical title: lab bench monkey/logistical queen). It appears this room is used mostly as a glorified closet, as I'm by myself (once this morning, an undergrad swept in, took an aliquot of some liqiud, nodded courteously, and then swept out) and the place is littered with bugs bits. I swept about a gajillion bug carcasses from the floor/window sills this morning. That is about a gajillion more than should be in an area used for RNA prep. A live one actually flew down my shirt! That was fun. Anyway, since my bosses are technically on vacation until Thursday, I'm amusing myself by scrubbing the floors/desks/windows/lab benches and reading up on the protocol I know nothing about but that I'm responsible for ordering reagents for.

The second look at the Hovel House didn't go so well this morning. Our agent, who had never seen the place, was appalled at the condition and fairly convinced we could never sell it for much. Apparently its in a flood plain, and could be the reason the "musty basement" smell is so, ummm...predominant. She said we could certainly rent it out after fixing it up (which could potentially involving hiking it up three more feet), but not really sell it for much. So now we must decide whether we are in for the long term or not. It makes me sad that the place was so uncared for, for so damn long, it is practically a tear-down now. She firmly declared it wasn't worth half of the asking price though, which was encouraging. We'll see.

AND the local festival line-up is up.
It's nearly as good as it gets around here. Ohbijou!!

The band my babysitter liked in 1988

Feckin eh, if I hear one more song for the heavily promoted, "oh-my-good-guess-who's-playing-next summer?!?", terrible eighties hair band on the radio I'm going to get stabby.

Hovel lovah

So, the more I think about this little house in the new town where I'll be working (hurmm..."town" is an awfully strong word. More like "village"), the angrier I get at the person who is selling it. Check out the pictures:







You would think, from the above pictures, that major renovations are underway. But in reality, other than the recently ripped up linoleum flooring piled up in the entry, this house is untouched from the last student renter. I know because when I was an undergrad, a friend WAS renting this place four years ago and it was a mess then. No fireplace on the livingroom hearth - just an exposed flue with insulation stuffed inside. Etc, etc... It makes me angry when landlords would rent a place they would NEVER live in themselves. Its exploitative and repulsive behaviour. And as a result, I don't want to pay her anywhere near what she is asking for the house. She just "happened to" drop by last night when I was checking out the house, to check up on her landscaper. Picture a blond cougar driving a big black SUV, who has hired a Mexican man (in an area of ridiculous caucasian homogeneity) to landscape (ie raze the waist-high grasslands) and rip up the linoleum. It took all I had not to hiss at her. Gross.

Too much bitching will blacken my heart. I hope she knows when to fold 'em, and take our offer at 88% asking price.

Huntin'

The two week anniversary of our European return is tomorrow. Currently my husband is away on the Magdalene Islands, exploring via bicycle the islands connected to the continent by a five hour ferry. While he was away, I had one formal interview and an informal meeting at two potential employers. The interview went really well, and I started to get excited about the prospect of working there. The informal discussion, with the head of the Molecular Biology unit at the local governmental office, was friendly and sympathetic, but told me her hands were tied at the moment due to physical constraints on the lab (ie she has money and projects but no more room. I guess). So that left one job in my field, which is at a small start-up company in a small town with a small university. Same university where I did my undergrad, actually. So they offered me the position (at a higher pay rate than the government job) and I accepted. Part two of this week's adventures involved figuring out where to LIVE. The small town is 40 minutes from Hometown, but lots of people commute. The two housing options break down thusly:

1. Bank re-po within a five minute walk to an excellent middle school in Hometown. Potential resale very high, the area was once one of the sketchiest streets in the city (my FIL was once a furniture delivery man. He had standing orders to not enter any houses on this one street by himself) but has since seen revitalization. Big time. But the paperwork is slow, as the listing actually expired last time, so it isn't even technically on the market (I just found it snooping by chance) and is in rough shape, apparently. New windows, metal roof, but black mold everywhere and just getting worse. It would be a gut job, but potentially limited to items we can do (replacing roof, stairwell, insulation, drywall, siding) and not items we can't do (electrical, plumbing, foundation work). Would still need to commute though, which means two cars I think. Two NEW cars, since ours is dying (the mechanic delivered the news earlier this week)

2. Small place in University Town, was rented for students for years as it is so close to downtown. But man, I was just inside, and it is a wreck. No insulation, thermal pane windows, creaky EVERYTHING. Also a gut job. But, I could walk to my new place of employment, and we could rent it to pay off the mortgage if we ever decided to move on. It a good long term investment. I'll try to upload some pictures to give an idea of the gross condition, though. Big job.

Anyway, the cafe where I've spent the dusk is closing. Time to head back into Hometown for a solo Friday at my moms place. Good times :)

I love this seasonally-inappropriate video:) Makes me want to be a red-head some days (I bought dye in Czech Republic, but haven't used it yet for fear of potential employer disapproval...oh, and the the directions are in the wrong language). The spider in the attic is too cute.

Home Sweet Home

It cold as fuck and the air smells like fish/the ocean.

Ahh....home.

Sigh. I hate London. I had to pay 5 pounds per hour for internet access at the budget hotel. Boo!!

But we got here, and other than the price of internet, the hotel is clean and worth the 50 pounds per night for a great soft bed and full washroom. We bought groceries before leaving Prague (and a czech garnet ring! SOO beautiful!!) so we've just camped out here, and will continue to do so before noon check out tomorrow. Then catch the free bus to the terminal, check-in, and fly home. Almost time for reality to set in. I keep getting emails from the realtor at home sending new listings, and I tallied up our total cost of our trip (somewhere around - cough- $5000 for two for three weeks) that doesn't even include the $2000 gadget we bought right before taking off, so I really ought to find a job. The manuscript writing is continuing after a false alarm, and I'm due to present my work next week at a conference in Hometown. I'll probably work on the presentation on the plane tomorrow.

Ha! Yeah right. Just kidding :) I'll probably spend the whole time worrying about money. Or reading The Cloud Atlas. I can't decide.

Cheers to everyone back home!

(Oh, and just in time I hear. The budget hotel news program tells me the WHO are suggesting borders be closed due to the swine flu. Not before I get home, bitches. I'll jump into the Thames if I get stuck in London...)

The end is nigh

He is snoring. Loudly. :)
Hubby is down for the count today...some sort of head cold. It pairs nicely with the fact that we will be leaving Prague a day ahead of schedule because of my incompetence. I meant to book a early morning flight from Prague back to London so that we had only half a day in that city. Imagine my surprise when I open the confirmation check-in email from British Airways that had Thursday as date of departure, not Friday as I had meant it to be. Whoops. The means a bunch of things:

1. We paid $16/day for luggage storage at Heathrow for our heavy bag full of camping gear. Rates were (much) cheaper in the city but we didn't want the hassle of dealing with public transport on a tight time budget between international flights (I have yet to point out in this blog that we were oddly delayed during routine train travel twice so far. The last time was arriving into London, where ALL TRAINS arriving or departing from Euston station were immobilised for several hours due to complete failure of the signal system. Talk about Chaotic). Now we need to go into the city for accomadation anyway, 'cause there's no way I'm spending another night at a London airport.

2. Need to pay for accomadation in London, which I needn't point out is much more expensive than Prague.

3. I have to spend time in London again. It didn't go so well last time.

Maybe booking things during the "all-night organization-a-thon" the day before departing wasn't such a good idea.

Update: ohhhhh goody, the fucking tube workers are on strike. On the Heathrow website:

Thing I didn't know before visiting Ireland:

1. Trains make me sleepy

2. Juice is sometimes sold as a concentrate in 1.5 L containers. 4X blackcurrant "squash" is not very good unless you dilute it first.

3. You can drink at least .25 L of 4X blackcurrant squash juice without vomiting first.

4. Bananas are cheap at home. Here, bananas are > $3 CDN/pound*. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are therefore not a cheap meal option.

5. Ha. And I thought Cape Breton was beautiful.

*vs 57 cents per pound home.

The low of the trip so far

This happened the end of last week, getting from London to Berlin. It is a story about me, a knife, Stansted airport and mugshots.

The camping lock knife which my husband has had for ten years in Canada is legal to have it in countries like Ireland, Canada, Spain, France, etc. It was in my carry-on going through Stansted airport in London (we had used it earlier in the day to cut BAGUETTE and CHEESE on the train) but forgot to remove it from my carry-on bag. I realized before going through security so, I had two options. 1) throwing it in the garbage suspiciously and dangerously and 2) handing it in upon arriving in check-out.

Being the responsible person I am, I approached the security officer, handed the thing to him, and said "I forgot I had this item in my bag but I am aware you will have to confiscate it before flying. Here you go." The problem is that the particular type of knife we own locks open, and this is apparently illegal to have in the UK. I had to go over to the security desk with a chaperone, where I had to wait for police officers to come and take my statement. And mugshot. And fingerprints. And palm prints. And DNA samples.

Apparently it happens every day (because in all other countries they are legal to carry) and the caution will only be a problem if I ever get caught in the UK with a weapon (it could be brought up in court) but all in all it was a horrible experience.
I asked at the desk what would have happened had I just thrown the thing out before security. The answer? "nothing, you would have gone through no problem." You're kidding me, right? Fucking English. I tried not to cry.

Of Potsdam and Prague

We spent the weekend in Potsdam, part of the former East German section of Berlin eating asparagus (in season!) and buying super great pottery. We stayed a friends new apartment, and got salmon at the market to make for dinner. Very lovely. The weather was not as sunny as Ireland, but we still managed to get in a day trip to Sansousi castle in the city centre (amid a very large park). We toured the inside with the aid of audio guides, gawking at the flourishly decorated Rococo design. Then onto a five hour, very pleasant train ride to Prague. I'll have to check a map to verify our route, but I believe we were in bavarian country, and it was incredible. Arriving in Prague, we have checked into the self-accomadation style, 2-bedroom apartment (with free laundry, kitchen, TV, breakfast AND wi-fi) which we only paid about $35 Canadian dollars a night for. GREAT deal. We have acquired a map, about 1 kilogram of fresh cherries, and are now headed out to find a restaurant.

I <3 Praha. :)

We are on the Stena Ferry running from Belfast right now and they have free wi-fi, so I am going to post the video I made a few days ago on the hill-top camp site, a moderate hike up from a winding road on Dingle Peninsula. The weather has continued to hold, we returned our car without a hitch, we stayed overnight in Belfast and are on our way to London. We will be staying overnight at the airport again, and catching a flight out to Berlin early tomorrow morning. We've had to repack our luggage so that we can store some items at Heathrow airport (mostly camping/rain gear) for pick-up on the way back to Canada, which was a gigantic chore. I've got a mild sunburn, which I am enjoying immensely and I'm happy to report I've had no more run-ins with ticks :) As I mention in the following video, my camera fell out of my pocket into loads of beautiful, fine white sand a few days ago, rendering it completely useless (I was in the process of running after some beer, which I had put in the water to cool down while we cooked our pork chops on the sand. When I next looked up, my two cans of Bulmers were serenely floating out to see, so I jumped up to wade in after them. Rest in Peace camera.)





(PS I didn't bathe IN the lake, but I did bathe in the waterfall down the hill from it. It was so cold it hurt my scalp, but I was hard up for a shower after swimming in the aqua blue Atlantic waters off Dingle Peninsula. Yes, my life is hard.)

PPS Oooo sorry for the crummy quality. The original movie wasn't that bad (ie you could actually make out our bright yellow tent... but the switch from .mov to .avi file with the crummy free online patch I used obviously was worth the money I paid for it. You'll just have to trust me that it was stunning enough to record the movie with the built-in laptop camera )

The view from here

 We've had a great run of weather, and are currently half way around the Ring of Kerry. After a relaxing meal cooked on an impressive beach (photos to come) I noticed my legs were covered in ticks. Yup, like deer ticks. I proceeded to freak out, and so instead of camping out again tonight, we've rented a room in a nearby B&B (expensive, but with internet access!!). Apparently the suckers (ba-da-bing!) latched onto my legs during our various hikes yesterday in Killarney National Park. Luckily, lyme disease is not prevalent in Ireland and I'll have to watch it from now on (stupid me wore inappropriate clothing out walking yesterday. My husband was largely unaffacted). So other than that, which counts as the most expensive and annoying problem to date (hey! at least its not bed bugs) we've had a fantastic run of luck. We eat home-cooked meals most of the time, stay up late (the sun sets completely here around 10:45 pm!!), wake up early, and lounge around deciding what to do shortly before doing it. When we first started this trip, I had a laundry list of "things we should see", but eventually the list shortened so that we could stay longer in each place, which is what we both enjoy better. Who wants to spend their vacation in a car (even if it is air conditioned)? Rathlin Island was a big hit, the northern part of the country is beautiful. Kerry is also beautiful but much more tourist-y. We intend to spend at least a few days on Dingle Peninsula, which is a little less commercialized, before heading back into Belfast to return the car. Then Ferry from Belfast, train to London, fly to Berlin, and train to Prague. Can't wait!

 

Rainbow over Carrick-a-red in County Antrim

East Lighthouse path on Rathlin Island

View from our tent, Rathlin Island (sunny)

View from our tent, Rathlin Island (foggy) + hubby with town dog

Our sweet ride, an upgraded car rented in Belfast.  SKODA!

Abbey in Inis, County Clare

Hostel in Inis, County Clare

Alive and well, will post more later today. Maybe even with pictures!

Update: Eh, sorry. Wi-fi not working at the hostel, only a dingy old PC. Today we are headed to County Clare and the Aran Islands, then after County Kerry. The pictures, which I was able to upload onto my Mac, look fabulous! My picture taking skills are improving!

Spent the night in Dundonald last night, Belfast. Pretty quiet, as the campsite was far from the city centre. We had a really easy time navigating the transit off the train, which was nice. Cooked some spaghetti in the microwave last night, as there are no campfires allowed (something we hadn't anticipated). It was okay though. We are now on our way to pick up the rental car, having planned our next few days in N.Ireland last night. Antrim, Giants Causeway, a couple of castles and sleeping overnight on tiny Rathlin Island are on the menu. Wifi will probably not be available anywhere we will be visiting for the next few days. I did manage to take a few photos though, so perhaps I'll get around to posting those before heading home. Ciao!

In Inis

Lovely day puttering around, listening to the free live music in town centre (complete with highland dancers girls in oddly coloured, neon costumes) and enjoying the sunshine. Had a lovely, but expensive late lunch at Old Ground Hotel after taken a free one hour Irish language session. I now know how to say thank you in Irish (we call it Gaelic back home). Now we are about to head out for a pint in a bar where there will be live traditional irish music. We've booked our trains for tomorrow to get us to Belfast, and still looking for accomadation.

Our German roomates got angry last night because hubby was snoring really loudly. Not enough to wake me up, but enough to get top-bunk girl angry enough that she yelled down to her bottom-bunk friend, which woke me up. If she had yelled in English I might have gathered what she was upset about. Instead, she just sprouted angry German, and I promptly fell back asleep. Ahhh....jetlag. I advised them to just poke him hard next time ;)

Shitty time at Heathrow...we didn't make it to the station in time to buy tickets, so we were stranded at the terminal from midnight until 5 am. Tried to sleep, but cleaning crews/uncomfortable chairs made that nearly impossible. I occupied myself by paying 10 pounds for 24 hours of wi-fi at the airport, and surfing the internet for information on trains, train passes, and accomadations in Ennis. I booked the hostel for our first "real" night in Ireland, at the Rowan Tree Hostel. After a long day of travel (bought tickets 6:30 am, boarded train in Euston at 7:10, arrived ferry terminal 11:30, hoped on the ferry to Dublin from noon until about 2 pm, travelled 5 pm til 9 pm n interCity train). Once in Dublin, we had a hell of a time getting tickets and finding our train out to Ennis, but we made it just in time. The train ride from Dublin to Ennis was very enjoyable, with lovely older ladies for company and stories. Important since the damn thing stopped mid-journey with technical problems, which ended up prolonging the ride by 1 hour. Was able to grab a handful of groceries in Dublin before boarding the last train, so we will have eggs to supplement our free juice and toast served free tomorrow morning. Arrival in Ennis was charming, with easy navigation to our hostel. Our bags are bloody heavy, and I can't wait 'til we pick up the car in Belfast on Monday morning. Arrival at the hostel meant showers (yay! Soooo dirty at this point - 48 hours of travel with no proper sleep nor bathing options) and now we might take an evening stroll around town before heading to bed. We are sharing our room with two German ladies who are already tucked in.

Cheers for now. No pictures cause I haven't taken a single one. :)

for the fam:

In London heathrow at ten pm, trying to figure out where the train-ferry-train tickets are sold. Asked three different ~information~ kiosks and was met by blank stares 3/3... So paid $6 CDN to find out info online at an expensive kiosk. Answer: Just down the street at terminal two.

Picked up free wi-fi in Toronto though with the new MacBook (anniversary present Whoot!) and was able to book flights back to London from Prague and the B&B in Prague.

Next stop: Ennis, Ireland for a traditional music festival. If we ever get there.

Over the ocean blue

Blurgh, we just spent $450 on camping materials. I've booked the rental car for Ireland, and the hotel for Prague. Don't know how we are getting from one place to another yet, but the back-up/default has always been the train. Which has the added bonus of being similarly-priced no matter when you buy (even the day of). Toying with the idea of going all out an buying a computer so we don't rely on internet cafes the whole time, but we'll see about that. Spending a wee bit much money for someone who is homeless and jobless. We leave Thursday 6 am, and get back mid June. Updates on here may be sporadic, but I'll try to keep the masses edumacated.

Whooooheeeee...

I just cleaned out my desk. Dude. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Sigh.

My Last Day in the Lab

It's been pretty lax around work in the last week. I've been spending most days organizing and labeling my lab work (both virtual and physical) to facilitate the transfer of unfinished projects to new personnel. Today we went out to celebrate, and lots of people turned out (nearing twenty I think), which made me feel warm and fuzzy. My supervisor not only picked up the tab for my lunch (with a glass of beer - Sapporo for the first time!) but gave me a wonderfully suitable parting gift : a gift certificate to a bookstore :)

Also this week, a lead to a job in my field at my Alma Matter. No clue on how soon they need people. If urgent I may loose it on account of my trip to Europe. But the mere presence of a job opening is encouraging.

As of this morning, I am officially homeless. The pre-move-in inspection occurred without a hitch but we are still waiting on some fuckery with the bank to get our money. Our "$1600" pay-out penalty somehow morphed into a $6200 payout penalty, which is just fucking ridiculous. Hello GREEDY. Apparently the drastic increase has something to do with falling interest rates, increasing the differential between when we signed and when we paid out. The fact that the interest rates plummeted due to big bank corporate fucknuttery IN THE FIRST PLACE has not escaped my notice. I nearly cried in front of our wonderful mortgage bank person when I found out, she promised she would look into it with her manager. Here's hoping.

Still haven't done shit all in terms of further planning for a three week tour of Prague and Ireland. I'm confident it will work out well, if not a tad expensive. Once in a lifetime experience though, so I'm sure it will be great regardless.

Mini-update complete. Back to burning data to CDs and external hard drives...

Freedom Tastes like a Used Book Store Smells...

Well. I've obviously been kept busy NOT BEING A GRAD STUDENT ANYMORE. We spent last week in Toronto (I bought a shit-ton of used books, including Revolutionary Road, the Book of Joby and a hardcover version of Finday's Headhunter), this week packing up the house, this weekend moving, and then in a few weeks our trip to Ireland. I'm barely one step ahead of the planning, but enjoying the relative stress-free lifestyle.

We are still looking at properties. Meanwhile, I'm going to start/update a wishlist for a new (small) house:

1. The WaterMill, by canuck company Element Four, is an atmospheric water generator. Apparently it runs on about 3-lightbulbs worth of energy, producing potable water you can pipe into the house or into special dispensers. Perhaps this is how we can get around the "no running water" restriction of the building code? Out of sight by any inspector who may come visit = free pass?


2. The Little Cod cast-iron wood stove, which can be used for cooking and/or heating. And is gosh-darned cute!


3. And for the bathroom? How about a space-saving hand-wash sink. Just enough room to scrub the phalanges and spit out your (Tom's of Maine mint) toothpaste.


4. For the kitchen sink, I saw this one while shopping at Ikea in Toronto. I love the proportion and the shape (and the price!). Just not so convinced on the functionality of a smaller kitchen sink.


My favorite part:)

The Alchemist

I picked up and put down a very good book in the last few days. I missed reading works of fiction so much, I nearly cried cracking the spine. Ah heavens, it's nice to be a non-grad student.

Defense done, Masters degree finished

You know that feeling when you study for "all the wrong the things" for a test? That's sort of how I feel after finishing my defense this afternoon. Due to some unavoidable travel plans, there were two substitutions on my committee. The people are not in my field (directly), and although my supervisor thinks I did well (and that "defenses never feel like they went well") I myself feel like I bombed on a bunch of inconsequential details. And that there were hardly any far-reaching, broad impact questions I was looking forward to explaining.

My talk was AWESOME, though it is only 17 minutes, so by definition I skipped a bunch of important stuff, thinking that it would get covered in the questions period. WRONG.

So I suppose I'm complaining for nothing, as I passed my defense, my supervisor thinks I did well (given the situation) and the only people who really witnessed my fuck-up on basic (but somewhat tangental) biochemical processes were in that room. And they are my friends. So all in all, I think the champagne will be well worth it tonight.

Too bad I feel a little bit crummy about it though. My research is absolutely interesting and cool. I promise.

Giant pizza slice in the sky

There is a video store in town. An independently-run, gigantic store housed in an old building with creaky floors and multiple staircases. In every nook and cranny, there are DVDs. Thousands and thousands of independent/local/international/blockbuster films. Whenever I visit, employees outnumber customers 2-to-1. There are always customers in there, but given the number of films they stock and the high number of employees, I have no idea how they stay in business. And as if any of those reasons weren't good enough on their own to skip Blockbuster, they will order in movies on your behalf. I went in last week to inquire about this film:


And the dude was like "Hmm..never heard of it. But it's got a pretty good rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so I'll just order it in from Amazon." and I was like "Nah...don't worry about it. That seems unnecessary [seeing as you have one Bajillion movies here I'll never get around to seeing]" and he goes "no, if you want it, we'll get it for you" and he taped away at some form, pressed Enter, turned around to me and smiled. "It'll be here in a few weeks".

Wow. Awesome customer service. Woot!

Aww...J'veux ca.

Would look great with the cinch belt I bought on the weekend for $6 on sale.



Not exactly defense-wear, though. Sigh.

I was reading somehwere lately about the utter lack of grammar or syntax in emails these days. Oh, here it is.

And you know, most of the people I email on a regular basis are not like that. Some of them tend to forgo capital letters, but other than that, even the most basic email still has an opening, a body and a closing.

Surprise and revolt met me as I opened an email from a realtor selling some promising land down in Hometown.

My email:
Hello,

I was wondering if you could tell me more about the lot in XX (the smaller lot). Are there mature trees, has it ever been cleared, or is it cleared right now? Is there running water near or on the property?

Thank you,

Natalie


Her email:

Hi They are putting the sewage thru XX so that is great you would have to have a well dug would be great to sub divide especially now with the sewer and he has more land at the back he would sell let me know if theres anything else you need Thank you for your email Vicki

Uhh, Vicki? How about a period or two.

And you know what the kicker was? No little disclaimer saying "written on the road from my crackberry, please excuse the typos". How utterly unprofessional - I wouldn't be hiring her, that's for sure. Brutal.

Ohhhhh Yeahh.

Thesis is done.

I am:
watching garbage TV (Holmes on Homes)
taking a nap
going second-hand store shopping
ordering more primers
catching up on email


Not necessarily in that order.

I sincerely believe...

that beards make everything better.

Even John Krasinki.

a·mus·ing (a-myoozing) adj.

1. Blatant spelling error on the thesis format check-list sheet the Faculty of Graduate studies sent me this morning with scores of nit-picky corrections to make.

Teehee.

Dearly Tempted

Me: "Oh My God, Dr.Supervisor, I'm so glad your here! *Sob*"
Him: "Natalie, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Me: "I think I've lost the data stick I was carrying around with my thesis on it. *Sob, sob* *reach for tissue*"
Him: "Well that's okay, don't you have a back-up on your computer?"
Me: "No. Well, I mean I did. But I haven't updated it in a few days even though I made a ton of changes...and and and *sob* I have to get this in to Faculty of Graduate Studies by TODAY!! *Wail* There's no way I can make it on time"
Him: "Please. Please stop crying..."


Me: *between blowing my nose* "I mean, I'm just so STUPID! I can't believe this is happening to me. I don't know what.....just joking."

HAahaahaHAHAhhahahHAHA.....

Read yours here.

Last night I had a "stress dream" involving elevators, which happens more often since moving to a larger city. Before, when only single-level buildings dotted the less densely populated cities where I lived, my stress dreams involved 1) waitressing too many tables at once, forgetting orders, dropping food 2) writing a test I hadn't studied for or 3) getting up on stage without knowing my lines.

A few days ago we were taking amongst ourselves in the hallway (our new ultra-efficient lab safety inspector is requiring everyone on the floor to enforce the strict no-coffee-at-your-desk rule. This shunts the majority of us without specialized offices to the hallway to sip tea/water/coffee. I hate not having tea at my desk while I'm working. anyway....) and it came to my attention I was the only one among the group of four or five people to not have the "OMG I'm NAKED" stress dream in my repertoire. Inneresting.

One week from tomorrow I will need to pass in my thesis to my committee members for review two weeks prior to my defense. One. More. Week.

Inspiration for the tiny house

While I whittle away at my thesis, I can't help but become distracted about plans for a new house. I love this step.



In my mind, the "tiny house" has moved from being a temporary, inexpensive dwelling to a more permanent and personal house. Land is inexpensive down home, we could live near the city and off the grid, without having to sacrifice a killer commute. So many possibilities...

Collarbones kill me.

My thesis is eating me alive.  I watched the sun go down last night and then back up again this morning.  The only thing keeping me going is Nutella and streaming video from HGTV to watch while I'm writing/annotating/correcting.

Sooo...

The deal with the land fell through.
Our household was swept by some type of norovirus.
Visiting the former and staying home due to the later has put me wayyyy behind schedule for writing.
I am desperately seeking distraction of any kind, only to kick myself later.
The hot water tank blew in the house, so no hot showers.
Which should make entertaining the houseguest (brother-in-law) and dinner guests (friends) in the next few days interesting.
And soon there will be a gigantic bill for a new, anode-free (lifetime gurantee, top-of-the-line) heater.

Slept 3:00 - 6:30 AM this morning. 

J'adore ma vie.

Dude. Fuck. Sigh.

Elliott Brood

I hate that The Marquee closed. Elliott Brood is playing April 24th, a week after my defense, so I'm interested in going. (aside: The Weakerthans are playing next week, leaning towards getting a ticket) But they're playing at the Paragon Theatre. What the f? I have no idea where that is.


*Wrinkles nose*

Update: Oh. Fuck me, the Paragon IS THE MARQUEE. They just closed it and re-opened with another name. It's about the fourth time they've done that. Dudes! Get a new business plan!

farming, farming, farming...

Got an email last night from the lady with the 100 acre wood + house for sale outside of Hometown. She wants to be neighbours! This is either really good (she took her time, looked at all the offers on the table, and decided we were the awesomest people that deserved it so she picked us) or bad (she picked someone else first, but the deal fell out for some unknown reason and so 2.5 weeks later she sends us the email).

Even though husband and I had a super long conversation about possible paths once arriving back home (one mortgage to flip house? two mortgages to flip one and house and live in the other? keep looking for land to live on outside the city? How much money we can afford/are comfortable spending at this point in our lives? etc. etc.) that pretty much negated living out in the sticks, the email last night excited me alot. At dinner, I was bemoaning the potential loss of my tiny house. As if on cue, the expensive door exposing just such a path swings wide open. Funny, that.

So we'll probably make a trip back to Hometown this weekend to check out the lot again. Don't want to rush into anything (nor force my cautious husband to). Now that the snow is melted, we should be able to walk around to the brook without sinking into the snow past our knees like last time.

And just for kicks, here is the one bedroom, 18 x 18 interior footprint floorplan I've been working on since we decided we might try a strawbale home with 2 foot walls:


The window placement could easily accomadate an partially earth-bermed house, if we so desired.

Back to my thesis now :)

Update: viewed her classified ad again last night, which mentions her choice to accept offer until Monday March 9th, then make her decision on Tuesday March 10th. So, it looks like we may not have been second pickings! Also, I've been in email contact with her - she is very friendly, open and quick to answer any questions and she said there were lots of bats nearby. I love bats!

Well, I didn't get sick while away.

I also didn't do much work on my thesis.

T-28 days until the draft goes to the cleane---uh---my review committee.

Going to bed now.

Nightmare Nuggets

It struck me that I was about to venture to the other side of this very large country to stay with a household with two small children a month before my thesis is due, and that I may be better served to just jump directly into a cesspool of germs. In attempt to ward off a (likely imminent) viral illness, I started to pop some preventative ColdFX pills. These Canadian nuggets of ginseng extract are supposed to do the trick for those feeling ill (or expecting to feel ill soon). But a word to the wise: avoid taking these just before getting into bed.

I woke up at 3 AM covered in sweat, after having the most atrocious nightmare(s). Which is saying something, because on a normal day I can recount the entire extended dream sequence of the previous night. I dream vividly all night long, and remember everything in the morning. Sometimes I go to sleep more rested than I feel in the morning after waking up, but alas sometimes the dreams are real hilarious gems. Night before last I was watching the television show House. That night I dreamt that my cat was on methadone (just like House!), and had to be extra careful bringing him around on errands because he was spazzing out (for the record, my cat does not leave the house nor really the back closet corner because he is a paranoid kitty). But man, ginseng + Natalie's already freakishly realistic dreams = fetal position. Won't be doing that again.

shizz

So I figured I would check the listings for Vancouver (where we will be next week) for live music. I thought that there would be lots of choice of live music concerts by bands that I listen to (Beast, Woodhands, Hey Rosetta!, Rose Cousins, The United Steel Workers of Montreal, somebody) They are all Canadian bands. It's not like I was checking to see if Ani Drifranco was playing Vancouver. And damn, even Danny Michel is playing here on the East Coast. But holy shizz, there is nothing that interests me. Granted, I don't know which websites to check for local listings, but the ones I've come across are not sparse - just sparse of anything catching my eye.
This is the only listing that raised my interest:
Hawksley Workman, Chad Vangaalen @ The Commodore Ballroom (No Minors) $28.50+ 8pm Presented by: Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad/ Olympiade Culturelle

BUT they're playing the day before we arrive so no good. Cadence Weapon and Thunderheist are playing the night we arrive, but I'm not so sold on that one. Boo. I guess I'll just have to spend time with family and friends. Jeesh.

The Golden Days

ROAD TRIP!

We decided yesterday morning to race back to Hometown to check out a plot of land for sale. What would warrant a 3+ hour one-way ride? 100 acres of forest + pasture land for $50,000 including a house, 25 minutes from city centre. SOOOO...we jumped into the car and headed to the mountains. This is a private sale and a ridiculously good price, so she was swarmed with interest. About 25 other buyers had visited the land, and I imagine she will be able to fetch higher than her asking price. But just in case she really wants an awesome, handy and friendly young couple to have it, we are going to put in an offer. We can only afford the asking price (no more) but we won't be carving up the land to sell off for profit so she may look kindly on us. I could imagine living there, once the house is dismantled and put together a little more to our taste. There are apple & cherry trees on the property, two brooks, lots of firewood, raspberries and blueberries galore. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but if we bought this land we would be mortgage free with 100 acres. Cool, eh?

"...gone tomorrow"

As part of my Procrastination Plan™, I've taken to cruising the www.mls.ca listings in Hometown. And I had my heart set on this fixer-upper just next to amenities selling for a great price (around 86,000). It was in an area of homes selling between 119-165 K, so with a little investment and a bunch of sweat equity I was convinced this would be a great investment. I emailed everyone who would listen about this little gem but never actually made moves to view the house in person nor inquire from the realtor any more specifics. I assumed the house would still be there in two months. And every week I would check mls, and every week the house was still there. But today, today, I actually go to the realtor's website and see that this diamond in the rough has sold already. Whoops. Guess I shouldn't have sat on my ass on that one.

I'm more heartbroken about it then I would have thought given my total lack of action. I guess it wasn't meant to be, and it was only a few days ago that hubby and I were discussing the prudence of jumping back into the realty market right away. On one hand, it is a Buyer's market and the cost of building materials is much less than when we built this first house. On the other hand, if the economy continues to tank and we cannot find work, it would be a nice financial net to have the money sitting in an account (or under the mattress). But as this situation proves, houses are still moving in my Hometown, and will likely continue in the foreseeable future, with a likely spike in prices once the economy recovers fully (if it recovers at all). So if we were going to buy at all, this was the best choice for us. But now it's gone, and I can't really find anything comparable in the city so we can either wait it out and focus entirely on the tiny house in the meantime, or forget the reno and invest in other things (like a large chunk of raw land, or even the stock market...maybe).

Right. Back to writing now.

Timing is everything

Yesterday I attended a free screening of the documentary on James Orbinski called "Triage". The film is about his time spent on the frontlines of the genocide in Rwanda while working for Medecins Sans Frontiere. Concurrent with the screening of the film was a separate but related photo-journalistic installation in the lobby of the building highlighting HIV/AIDS work in Rwanda called "Living With" by a Canadian group called "Photosensitive". There are probably 75 photos throughout the extensive first floor of the building, and every time I have gone down to the coffee shop there are at least a few people milling about the photos, reading the captions. The black and white pictures chronicle the effects of HIV/AIDS in a country devastated by a genocide where systematic rapes were used during the killing campaigns. I myself went through the whole installation a few days ago, and so when I found out very last minute about the "Triage" documentary, I decided to watch it. This is a definite change of heart for me, because although I know about the genocide (numbers killed, the ethnic groups involved, the rough timeline, etc.) I have, until a few days ago, completely avoided media about this event. Don Cheadle did a movie called Hotel Rwanda which I could not watch, and I have avoided both the autobiography and subsequent film based on the experiences of Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire (who used to maintain a summer cottage literally down the road from where my mother grew up) called "Shake Hands with the Devil", because I can't handle it. But these instances where I can educate myself about the past and current conditions of the genocide keep throwing themselves in front of me, and I cannot avoid them any longer. In a way, this is my tiny effort to honor those who died for nothing - to acknowledge the circumstances and be able to recite to others who may not know as much. And if the timing of these events were coincidental, they keep happening: Romeo Dallaire himself will be speaking at the university in two weeks.

Oddly, about 1 1/2 years ago he was to present as well, and although myself and some other students tried hard to get tickets to the extremely poorly organized event (Shout out University Student Union!) and failed, the talk was cancelled last minute anyway. So now I see that he is scheduled to speak again, and I would very much appreciate his talk in the context of my new knowledge surrounding the genocide. But lo and behold - he is speaking the week we will be in Vancouver. So sadly, I won't be attending this time either. Perhaps one day the timing will be right, and I will pay money to a non-profit organization to get the privilege of hearing Lt. Gen. Dallaire speak about the most horrendous human-lead tragedy to occur in the last fifty years.

Imperial Diplomat

This guy is coming to speak tomorrow. That scarf!

Update: His Science is pretty awesome and he handled a question from a once-genius-but-now-only-sad old man who attended his seminar incredibly diplomatically.

I read a lot of celebrity gossip (what compels me, I'm not so sure. Schadenfreude, maybe? But it is especially true nowadays, when I'm supposed to be furiously at work on a thesis. Sigh). I like to read about bitchy behind-the-scene antics, who wore what to the award show, and who is dating whom. But I can't understand why anyone would want to emulate Victoria Beckham. She crazy.



I would not consider this beautiful at all, and I'm always amazed by the gossip authors who do. Those who think her hair cut is fierce? Don't get it. The only reason she cut it was not to "stand out" or "be brave" but because she was probably losing so much of it due to starvation the extensions wouldn't hold anymore. So. Gross.

Anyway, those are my deep thoughts for the day. I am working on my thesis, finishing up the genome sequencing (I ordered twenty primers yesterday) and planning for a mini-vacation in Vancouver in just over a week. Two months until I defend my thesis, month and a half until I pass in my written work. My eyeballs are starting to bleed from staring at the computer for so long. :)

Oh, and PS why do the startlets always wear their shoes one size too bog? I could fit one of my fat fingers in the heel of Mrs.Beckham's shoe up there. Is it because that is the best way to avoid the blisters us mere mortals are prone to developing? If you are lucky enough to be driven from one place to another, walking is optional so a too-big shoe is possible? Curious.

Telecommunications fucknuttery

AGH!! I just got off the phone with Bell mobility. They sent my rebate cheque to the wrong address, which means that after waiting six months I probably will never even see that money ever again!
AND THEY HAD THE GALL TO TELL ME THERE WAS NO WAY TO PUT A STOP PAYMENT ON THAT CHEQUE TO SEND ME A NEW ONE!

Timeline: Mid September I cancelled our account. It takes 30 days to process (WTF #1). So that means we would get billed until mid October. Mid-October rolls around, we get our bill, but because Bell Mobility bills one month ahead (WTF #2) we are paying for service we are not receiving anymore. We are entitled to a rebate. Said rebates takes 90 to process (WTF #3). This riDONKulous process is repeated for every single closed account, I presume (WTF# 4). Cheque was sent out mid January. It still hasn't arrived by mid February, so I start calling around and they tell me they sent it to my old address. Canada Post is no longer forwarding my mail because it has been more than six months since we've moved. So now the tenants in my old apartment will be getting my Bell Mobility rebate because it took SIX MONTHS to cancel the account and I've since moved. WTF BELL. WTF!!

Stupid goddamn telecommunications companies I hate them all. Fuck them. I'm moving to the woods. AGGH!

cake anyone?

Both Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day (this day, 200 years ago).

How did I get this far in life without knowing that? I must stop reading the celeb gossip, lord.

Officially SOLD

In my inbox today:


woot!

complaints for the ether

I'm trying to go back to my sequencing data to verify the quality of the contigs but when I open the raw quality file and search out the four contigs of interest they are there, but much much shorter than the contigs I'm dealing with now. So either the numbers don't correspond like I assumed or I have amalgamated multiple contigs into one long one, and they mis-leadingly maintained the name of a single contig. If option 2, I can't remember exactly my steps and I don't think I wrote them down. I don't know how to retrace my steps, and so I am screwed in terms of determining quality scores for my contigs of interest. F&ck.

Horoscope

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Creativity is important. Even Patrick Ewing took time off from being an NBA superstar to play the Angel of Death in The Exorcist 3. The first week of February will bring on a period of personal creativity so intense it borders on manic. The Great American Novel remains unwritten, Capricorn! This week, said novel is your responsibility. Remember: good writing can get you [deleted for family audiences].

Better get working!

knock knock

I stayed home this morning during an Energy efficiency test I asked to have done last week.  For $150, the inspector will come to complete the ~1 hour test (most notably by completing a blower-door vacuum test).  I will get the result in a week (energy efficiency on a scale of 1-100).  Because our total income is measly according to income tax returns (my stipend is not included therefore I make <2500/year), we will get the entire $150 refunded. If we rate 77 or higher, there is a potential rebate for CMHC that would total $450, but other than that, we don't qualify for the multitude of other provincial rebates because we didn't follow the proscribed (yet asinine) method of rebate procedure in our province. In order to qualify after the building is complete, you must pay $250 to get your plans verified before you started building. We were informed consumers and already knew what we could afford/what would make the biggest difference in terms of insulation and environmental upgrades (and didn't want to shell out $250 for someone else to tell us that) so we don't qualify.  We must retain the expensive services of a third party to get a rebate for upgrades like LowE windows, high efficiency fireplace and extra insulation. There is no going it alone. So now the only rebates we could get (other than the CMHC rebate, and that is dependent on score) is a big fat pat on the back.

Anyway, there was also a second inspection going on today: that of our buyer's.  At noon, a separate home inspector guy come out to climb on the roof and poke at our walls.  I was home, but I stayed out of the way in the master bedroom with my laptop, my cat, my lunch and my headphones.  I was instructed by my realtor (who is also representing the buyer) to not engage the buyer at all.   Apparently he is prone to weelin' and dealin' and she didn't want our (still tentative) agreement to unravel.  Fair enough.  

All in all, the inspection went well.  There were only a few things which were mentioned: apparently there is problematic condensation occurring around our North-wall installed breaker box.  My electrician did a shitty job of insulating it, so there is condensation accumulation.  It is an easy fix, it just requires some weather-proofing with caulking.  I am very glad the inspection was done and that this minor problem (which could have eventually lead to a much bigger problem) was found right away.  I will tuck that into my inventory of "things learned on the first build".

So I guess in the next few days we will be receiving an amendment from the buyer with clauses to address anything mentioned by the building inspector.  If we refuse to comply the deal could collapse but given that there were no major surprises, we expect to be able to fulfill any clauses they mention.  

First offer

The couple who viewed the house today liked it enough to put in an offer. Unfortunately, the offer was lower than I had hoped - at 194,200 it is about 12,000 under asking price. We aren't really in a rush yet, so we countered with 203,900 (only three thousand under asking price) and they countered with 199,250, but this time with the requirement of completing the basement drywall (taping and mudding, and sanding in preparation for paint). We have until noon tomorrow to decide, but I think we've both decided that 199+ with extra work is too little, given that our realtor has had activity from two or three other couples.

So position: hold tight.

Update: They were bluffing. Either that, or the pregnant lady was able to convince her husband to accept the offer at 203,900. But they just faxed in the accepted counter-offer and we are now proceeding with final details. Hopefully it doesn't all fall through :) Four days on the market, with an accepted offer by the very first couple to see it at 98.5% asking price. It is all going according to plan :)

Fire his ass ... (?)

Last week, this news story made the rounds. John Ross, the head of emergency medicine at the hospital, set off a "code orange" - an internal mass casualty alert for hospital staff - in response to a flood of untreated patients in the ER.

This week, it is quietly being announced John Ross is no longer the head of emergency medicine at QEII.

From the memo on the Capital Health website:
"We are writing to let know that we have re-aligned responsibilities within the Acute Care Portfolio and put a new leadership team in place at the QEII Emergency effective Monday, February 2. "

Re-aligned, eh? You mean, "re-assess how badly we need you versus how bad you make us look in public"? Health care in Canada, although free and accessible, costs a shitload of money to run. And the sad truth is, the emergency room is often the first stop for non-urgent medical problems when people can't fit in an appointment with their over-worked GP or can't make it to the local clinic (often open for fewer hours due to budget restraints). I don't know John Ross, but I am willing to bet money he was just dealing with a horrible situation the best way he knew how: call a code orange and let every capable person in the hospital be ready to treat patients. Put down the incessant paperwork, and clear the hallways. I applaud this sort of action-driven protest against how we run our hospitals, and I wish he wouldn't be demoted because of it.

It hasn't escaped my notice that the bloated healthcare system with all it's redundancy, paperwork and red tape is just mimicked in these new leadership roles. To wit, Dr. John Ross has now been unceremoniously replaced with not one, but two other people:
"Sam [Campbell] and Sandra [Janes] will work collaboratively in a co-leadership model to ensure we are positioned to optimally deliver quality and safe patient access and flow"

Right.

It'll suck

But I'll still see it.

Please like it, please like it, please like it...

We have our first showing tomorrow.

The house went up on the market officially on Saturday Jan. 31st. We spent some time fixing up the exterior (placing shutters, and replacing the vent covers that blew off a few weeks ago) as well as tidying the inside.

We made a custom cabinet for the stacking washer and dryer, which I think turned out really well. It is big enough so that if the new owners need an over-capacity washer/dryer, they can swap out the existing (smaller) set for a larger stacking set in the future.

*fingers crossed*

Hour two

Nice and cozy here in the lab though :)

Little things

1. Past midnight. Still in the lab.
2. Annotating this genome for a second time thanks to my inability to transfer files over from new assemblies in Artemis
3. It's nice when I come across this:

It makes me happy when the subject line and query line match up at the 1's.

Two more months. Phew...

Black Mountain

I can't pin-point who this reminds me of...Sinead O'Connor / Holly McNarland or someone else ?