and i thought i was harsh!

apparently i really AM a goody-two-shoes.



this is based on

• crappy (2x)
• hell (1x)

well you know what i say to that? crappy hell.


.

101

i couldn't let the chance of post number 101 going by without throwing a little depeche mode 101 on the headphones to accompany me as i type this. this brings back some great highshool (and college, and university, and post-uni) memories. i used to be a HUGE depeche mode fan. i guess i still am, because this album is fantastic and i'm loving hearing it again. (for those who care, i.e. paula, it's currently "nothing" off disc two, just about to head into "pleasure, little treasure"). i remember when we were in high school my sister paula worked at the arby's (at the mall!) and her name tag said "Paula C. of Truth". the "of truth" was underneath, or potentially on the back. if you're geeky enough to get that joke then hats off to you!

tonight i was going to have some great photos of middle cove, where michelle and olivia and i were going to go and watch the capelin roll in. the fishery opens tomorrow so we figure they must be around. there are so many that people can just go down and scoop them up in nets or whatever they have. i'm sure you actually need a license to fish them. we just wanted to go and look at the fishies. it's something i'd love to see. unfortunately, olivia had a late nap and that coincided with when we were going to go so we ended up staying put. but that's ok! we had a fantastic dinner together. we attempted to bbq with the little charcoal one but it was sufficiently windy enough to cause both of us to feel burning down the townhouse was a distinct possibility. we used the broiler instead. the scallop/veggie skewers didn't seem to mind. mmmm.

this past weekend i went to the easter seals 24 hour relay here in st john's. actually, it was in paradise which is very close. and not at all like paradise. that was obviously a marketing ploy to get people to go there. no offense to the place but we spent the day (i was only there for 14 hours, from 1pm until 3am) in a fog bank with wind and rain. fun! apparently after i left there was crazy thunder/lightning and they had to shut things down. they kept the hot tubs running though, which was good because it was about 4 degrees out. that's basically the only thing that kept people from freezing to death. all in all it was a fun event though - i'd do it again next year. i'll just make sure i'm better prepared to spend the whole night outside. like i'll bring all my winter gear and a rain suit aka i'm-an-offshore-fisherman-suit. it was nice to get to know a few of my coworkers better as well. seeing as how i spend all my time in my office staring at a computer screen and looking stern and/or official, it's nice when people who i don't deal with on a daily basis get to see that i'm not all business and that i'm actually partially crazy and a real riot to hang out with. (i'm assuming they share my perception of myself. i wonder if they noticed that i'm rather conceited?)

well, that's it for today. pretty boring eh? but vernon seemed to want an update so there you go. :) life just isn't that interesting these days....

here's a parting shot of olivia heading up the stairs. she's really mobile now. she's actually just starting to stand up on her own....



ps: good evening pasadena!
(man, i'm a geek.)

100

well folks, this is it. post number 100. pretty cool, eh? i've been watching the number go up and up in the past few weeks and i was thinking "what should i blog about on number 100"? turns out, i came up with pretty much nothing. today was an ordinary day, in an ordinary week, with ordinary people doing ordinary things. not much to say there. it's been one year since this whole thing began. my first post was actually one year ago yesterday.... i think we were....somewhere.....wisconsin? toronto? yes, toronto. meeting V's dad for the first time! not scary at all, either. at least, not from my side. maybe it was for him, i'm not sure. although if it was, he covered it up very well. in fact, the entire family covered up the scariness of meeting me quite well. warm fuzzies all 'round for them. it's been a great year getting to know them all - even if it is mainly over great geographical distances.

and speaking of great geographical distances... oh how i miss vancouver. *sigh. *sniffle. *sigh. i wrote a big paragraph about all the things i miss....but i deleted it. that's not what this is about. yes, i miss home. yes i miss my friends (hi!). but i'm here now - so let's enjoy it! it's not snowing or incredibly windy so i'm going to relish that!

first though i should mention that after the hell exam last week (how could it have gone so badly? HOW?) V had collected the snacks i'd requested - yay V! there was also enough alcohol to kill a horse - which ended up being much needed. yay V!



secondly - as soon as the exam was finished i started knitting. dishclothes. ya. how boring is that? i can't help it - it's just so mindless. and soothing. so here's almost 4 dishclothes, plus one half finished man's sock. exciting, no? the sock is for V - he picked the yarn. i'm hoping it will fit him. he needs to bring his foot home so i can measure it again.



and thirdly - i picked up our first veggie order from the organic farm today. they didn't think they'd be open this early. in fact, he had emailed everyone to say they wouldn't be starting until early july (i think), but then it got hot and wow- the greens took off! so today we got a HUGE bunch of chinese cabbage (not bok choy, some other leafier variety - but still stiffer, like cabbage), salad greens, chives and green onions. you can tell that i'll be eating a big chivey salad tomorrow for lunch! the whole thing smells SO good too. i can't wait to eat it all. actual vegetables with FLAVOUR and SMELL. so rare in newfoundland. i hope vernon doesn't mind that he's missing the first one! ah well - they'll be many more.


as far as "milestone" posts go, this one basically sucks. maybe if i get some more sleep (entirely my fault - i just refuse to go to bed early. i'm like a three year old, i swear) i'll come up with some interesting top 100 list or 100 things (ick) but cooler. we'll see. or maybe i'll wait until 500. that'll buy me some time.........

the day

today was totally different from what i had actually planned. yesterday i ended up staying up WAY. TOO. LATE. like 2am too late. whoops. for some reason, when vernon is out of town and i'm left to entertain myself i end up staying up until the wee hours. a bit of a night hawk i guess. anyhoo - the really late night turned into a really late morning. so rather than hop out of bed and head straight up signal hill i crawled out of bed, over to the bodum and spent two hours drinking coffee and reading trashy novels. yay! michelle called around noon and we made plans to go run around quidi vidi lake. so an hour and a half later found me, my sister, and my neice chugging around the lake in the hottest part of the day (not the swiftest of plans) and for some reason there was no breeze. ugh. after that haul we discussed why some overweight women have no cellulite and why we hate them. we also went to canadian tire where i purchased a fan (it's damn hot here people) and some cereal bowls (cute, stripey, cheap). michelle bought a garbage can and some hangers. we really are a heap of excitement i tell you. it was great fun.

now, it's 11:30 and i'm not tired at all. great. i suppose i should go at least lie in the bed, if i want a chance to get any decent amount of sleep before work tomorrow.

:)

a day of firsts

well - today was a good day. and it was a day of definite firsts for me!

- it was the first saturday since moving to st john's that i haven't felt like i should really be studying...something....anything. this will be a short lived feeling but i'm planning on enjoying it.
- it was the first time that i have ever changed a diaper. not an experience that i was looking forward to...but what are you going to do when you've got a baby that needs attention and you're like, the adult person. luckily it was only number one. i thank olivia for the gentle introduction.
- it was the first time that i have ever bought a sofa. it's a sofa bed and will arrive just as mom and dad LEAVE which totally sucks. but it's the only one i liked (really really liked) and so it will be here for me the next time they are here! i'm pretty sure i can scrounge a therma rest out of the closet and that i'm young enough to handle sleeping on the floor.

now, i'm going to leave the computer and go read a trashy novel. aaah, trashy novels, how i've missed you during my last semester.

:)

on the docket for tomorrow - a big walk from my house, up signal hill, through quidi vidi and home. should be fun!

j

gah.

that sucked. seriously.

ugh.

the one plus is that it's done. and that's really the only plus. ya.

alrighty.

so this is it.

i feel vaguely ill. i've turned off the lectures, closed the books and now it's just up to fate. i could say that how well i do will depend solely on my own preparatory techniques, but i prefer to keep fate involved so if i crash as badly as i know is possible i can blame something other than myself.

i can feel the december exam at the back of my head - just sitting there, reminding me. i used that exam as one of my practice ones. it WAS a hard exam. the march one was hard too - but not as brutal as december. here's hoping june is a breeze. one of the funny things is that i do most of these things in my daily job...so it's not like i don't know "how". sitting here putting together a cash flow statement from random pieces of information given on an exam and making mistakes and forgetting components and feeling like a general idiot...i need to remind myself that when i go back to work tomorrow one of the things on my list for the day is to put together the financial statements. you know - income statement, balance sheet, STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS. i do it every month, every month i somehow manage to get it to balance. so obviously in the real world i have a handle on the concept.... now it's just a matter of seeing if i can get that concept to translate back into the world of academia. this is a backwards motion. usually we struggle with the leap in the opposite direction.

ok all - fingers crossed. in an hour or so i'll be starting to write. and in 30 minutes i'll be driving in my car. and in 5 i'll be eating whatever i can find in the fridge for a sort-of dinner.

weeee.

24

in 24 hours it will be over. actually, in about 21 or so hours it will be over. and i need to fit in much more reviewing and some serious sleeping in there as well. hmmm.

i definitely feel better about this compared to december... but do i feel "better enough"? i suppose time will tell.

the crappy part (ok, one of the crappy parts) is that it takes about 8 weeks to get the marks back on these exams. so i'll be into august before i know my fate. good thing i'm good at forgetting about it and not caring once that pencil goes down. i wouldn't want it to cramp my summer or anything.

ah summer. how i long for thee.

the weather gods smile upon me.....

it's 6 degrees and drizzling. sweet! finally - i don't feel like i want to go run around outside and i can actually sit in here and get some work done. yay!

getting harder

it's getting harder and harder to study. this whole weekend the weather has been fantastic - 23 or 24 degrees each day with the humidity pushing that higher and into the high 20's/low 30's. it's sunny, the plants are all in leafey greeney splendor and i want to be out IN it! not cooped up looking out the window at this view:




*sigh*

only 3 and a half more days to go!

i am downright weird.

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird. A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone. You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are. You get along well with: The Ring Finger Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

doug savage is fantastic.

there is a guy at my sister's company who is a cartoonist (i have no idea what he does at his office job. office-ey type things i assume.). he has a site called Savage Chickens which is the most hilarious collection of chicken cartoons on post-it notes that i have ever seen. granted, it's the only collection of chicken cartoons on post-it notes that i've ever seen, but regardless - the man is sheer genius.

so when i was over there getting caught up on the last week or so of his postings i just about snorted tea out my nose at this one.

now...most of you know that i knit. sort of. i try anyway. and one of my favourite knitbloggers and authors is stephanie pearl-mcphee. she has several books and a great blog and she also has a brother-in-law who works with doctors without borders. a couple of years ago she issued a challenge to knitters to donate money, whatever they could, and started something called knitters without borders - you can see the link to it in my side bar. the idea was that if you can afford to buy yarn you can afford to give a up a little for people who need the help. it evolved out of the 2004 tsunami disaster but it has continued on well past that. you can read more about it here. it has been a raging success and to date the knitters have raised over 320,000 dollars. ya, i know. that's a lot of yarn money.

so when i saw that doug savage had drawn a cartoon for knitters without borders i just about keeled over. it's priceless. he needs to get that on a tshirt - STAT. or a tote bag. or a mug. or all three.

PS - doug actually commented on my blog on THIS post. paula, my sister, told him i had linked to him from here and he was nice enough to come on over and check it out.

'bergs

i drove out to blackhead after work because i saw that, according to icebergfinder.com there was a berg there! there are a lot of icebergs around the area right now. we are definitely in iceberg season. this could explain the cool air. anyway, i knew this one would be easy to see from the side of the road so i decided to just head out there straight from the office. i don't have a lot of time to take study breaks on week nights but this was definitely worth it. these are the first actual icebergs that i've really truly seen in real life. it was pretty cool. although i didn't see any skeletons hanging off of them... i was pretty jealous of all the people that i saw out walking today as well - it was a georgeous day - incredibly sunny, coolish air but a warm sun, great views of icebergs - what i like to think of a stereotypical newfoundland day. if only i'd seen some whales breaching while puffins flew by it would have been perfect!

the view as i drove into blackhead

'bergy goodness

a close-up

lots of people climbing around the little bergie bits growlers that had
already washed up on shore (yes, ones this teeny are called growlers. bergy bits are
actually 1-4 metres tall and 5-10 metres long.

hey look - there's another one over by signal hill!

i drove up there and got a closer look - this one had lots of
bergie bits trailing after it AND a little boat is
actually down there (hard to see in the photo)

a view of the first iceberg i saw, at blackhead, from signal hill

i'm not happy with these photos, but you get the idea. i have a point and shoot and honestly, sometimes i can't figure it out. i'm that mechanically challenged. scary, but true.

weather....

jenn left a comment yesterday to let me know that the high in kamloops for today was/is 36 degrees. ouch. that is h.o.t. so i'm coming back with a little "in-yo-face" attitude to let the entire world (yes, i labour under the delusion that the entire world reads my blog but is just too shy to comment) know that our high for wednesday of this week is supposedly going to be 18 degrees! 18!! that is like....warm! ya! i'm getting the capris out already. and the flipflops.

ya!

ps - i should add that we currently have a severe frost warning in effect. i'm not kidding.

pps - due to a glitch on the weather network website (and the tv apparently according to vernon) our morning temperature for tomorrow was being listed as -45 with a wind chill of -65. they've since fixed it. but we laughed. sort of. nervously.

list

1. paula emailed and reminded me of bob ross and the joy of painting - how we loved bob and his almighty mountains and happy trees. she emailed this link to a list of tshirts that bob sells on his website....the ultimate in kitsch!

2. michelle walked over to borrow my car and it's so cold she was wearing her toque. it's extremely windy and about 10 degrees...and spitting rain....good thing she was wearing her 3 ply gortex. i am extremely tired of this weather.

3. the leaves are barely out on the trees. flowers are blooming, but only tulips on the sunny sides of streets are blooming yet. the others are still tightly closed in protest.

4. i'm still studying. hating every second of it. only 2 weeks to go.