Happy Halloween

Last night I went to a Halloween party and met some new people. Exciting. I was a Texan which basically involved me borrowing some of Jenn's clothing and saying things like IN-surance and UM-brella. And i curled my hair... :)

Other exciting things that happened this week:
1. Wrote and aced my Toxicology mid-term. Felt a bit guilty though as I was writing it, since it was pretty hard and I'm sure a bunch of my classmates probably failed it.
2. Eclipse of the moon! Very cool...
3. Tour of the woodworking, metal working and welding shops at BCIT.
4. Bought some PC White cheddar mac and cheese from the Superstore. Mmm...PC...I missed you...Stared at the decadent chocolate cookies for a few minutes but decided against it.
5. Tried Power Yoga. Whew...what a workout!
6. Started my lab write-up...realised that Ventilation is Greek to me.
7. Started my stats assignment...realised that I don't know how to use Excel as well as I thought i did.
8. Tried some BC Chardonnay. Not very good, but it had a nice label! ;) None left for cooking.
9. Got some dude's phone number...Don't know if I will call...Hesitant to open up that can of worms.

At least it's not raining. Happy Healthy Workplace Week!

I think I'm losing it

Ok...so I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. A combination of being stuck at home studying every night, loneliness, homesickness and general boredom with my life here in Vancouver. A teary conversation with Dad, a phone call to Britta to make plans for tonight (yay! out of the house!), a pep talk from Eddie, and 10 hours of studying have made me feel much much better. And I'm sure perky Britta will cheer me up even more. Tentative plans for tonight include PCB-free wild salmon (ie. sushi) on Broadway, maybe a mindless movie. Hopefully this will rejuvenate me to do more studying afterwards. I have made 2 lovely charts already today...hmmm...halogenated hydrocarbons...liver damage, CNS depressants, ozone depleting, carcinogenic, reproductive toxicant, greenhouse gases, lipid peroxidation...whew...my head is full...time to fill my tummy!

Oh! I got MY photos back from Garibaldi Lake, Longboat and Edmonton. Turns out I can take some pretty good photos. I will get them scanned and post them. Myss, your copies are on their way. The ones of the horses made me laugh out loud! I have also sent out some photos to Erin, Maureen and Paule. Does anyone but Melissa even read my blog anymore?

More photos from longboat

See us paddling, capsizing, catching up, land-ho!

http://www.cher.ubc.ca/Longboats.pdf

EdMONton

It was a good trip, but boy was I ever relieved to see my lovely tree-lined Vancouver street.

Friday night we went out for dinner at a Greek restaurant on Whyte Ave where we were entertained by a half-naked belly dancer. Although it was evident that we desperately wanted to go up and dance with her, we were never asked. Leave that job to the horny middle-aged men, I suppose. Ate the best moussaka of my life (sorry Iris). Filled whatever space was left with beer. Very very full. Smoking in bars...yuck.

Saturday we went to our cabin/hut 2.5 hours South of Edmonton, stopping on the way to buy groceries in Red Deer. Bit of a hole of a town. I can see why Tyler ran away. Didn't see the Parringtons. Cabin/hut was a one room deal, slightly larger than my room here in Vancouver and definitely smaller than my room at Borden. It held a wood-burning stove, 3 beds and a kitchen table. Went for a hike in the afternoon and quite literally ran into about 2 dozen horses. One minute they were all grazing at the side of the road, the next they were surrounding us, with their faces pressed right up next to ours and nibbling on my fleece jacket. I can't wait to get the run-away pictures back from that experience. A bit nerve-wracking at the time, but now it's actually quite funny. Salsa burgers for dinner, UNO (of course) and the iPod "Patio Mix". Feeling a bit sick so I drank Peach Schnapps and OJ. Melissa and I serenaded Anke (Melissa's Dutch roomate) with our snoring. She seemed really impressed in the morning.

On the way back to Edmonton, we stopped off at Mitchell lake for a little walk about. All was peaceful and serene until Melissa fell down the hill. Yikes...some nasty prickly things and a less than fetching bruise.

Sunday night, very sleepy...rented some movies, ate some popcorn and popsicles.

Monday, hiking around Elk Island National Park. Didn't see any elk, but saw LOTS of bison...mmmm...bison. The bison are obviously oblivious to the fact that they are supposed to stay 3 schoolbus lengths away from us and were wandering onto the trails and the roads. We got some pretty good pictures of our "close encounters". On the way back to Edmonton also snapped a photo of a bumper sticker on the back of a pickup truck that said "Independence: Alberta's only hope"...yeahhhh...good luck with that.

Monday night, very sleepy...learned how to play Canasta, got SMOKED in UNO (I'm still in shock!) and went to bed.

The plane ride back to the 'Couver was actually quite productive. Finished off my homework before the seatbelt sign went off. Read a little Macleans. Took a nap. Having a head-cold while flying is no fun though. I thought my head was going to explode during the descent!

It's time to get my clogged/runny nose back to the grindstone.

Contaminants

Contaminants
Originally uploaded by Jadine.

Here we are...I'm in the second seat on the right, behind the guy in the yellow hat.

3rd!

Catherine wrote up a pretty good summary of what happened this weekend:

After much soul-searching and hot tea, Sunday came. The team was sore but focused, and jubilant at the prospect of not having to pick up a cone. All thoughts of pentachlorophenol were put aside as the team got down to business. The Team got off the line well, and chose an excellent course to distract and confuse the other teams. The race got ugly around the corners, and Kevin Hong bore the brunt of the full-contact fury as a plastic paddle was chopped on his hand like an axe. He nonetheless soldiered on, setting a furious pace for the crew. Three boats were neck in neck around the second corner, with plenty of colliding down the straight stretch. It was a dogfight as the boats matched stroke for stroke and axe-chop for axe-chop. Barb Karlen suffered many protests from other teams as she employed her tug-of-war skills to advance her boat. SOEH had a formidable task to keep in time and apply the necessary power, but they rose to the challenge with resolve and fortitude.
It was not yet decided as Kevin Hong sprang from the bow of the boat to run to the gong and end the event... and SOEH emerged from the grad studies corec division with a third place finish! The Team finished with a time of 10:26, the narrowest of margins behind second place's 10:24. The cheering fans went wild and the paddlers, while proud of their accomplishments, turned their thoughts to longboat 2005 and the asskicking they would then deliver...

I've got nothing else exciting to say. Trying to figure out when and how I will get home for Christmas. Thinking about visiting Michael Robb and Melissa in AB on the way back East. This would mean a train ride through the Rockies...exciting! Westjet also flies into John C Munro Airport (in Hamilton) which would save Dad a trip into the madness which is Pearson...

Looking forward to my trip to EdMONton. Apparently there will be some drinking, a rustic cabin, a snotty Quebecoise and some hiking. All good stuff. Better than studying...but I suppose I will have to squeeze in some of that too (on the plane, before Myss wakes up...)

Capsized, but still made the finals!

The weather today was perfect for some longboating, 24 and sunny. We got off to a pretty lousy start. After colliding with another boat we wrangled ourselves free and rounded the first buoy. Then it was back to shore to pick up a pylon. As we pulled up onto the beach, Graham hopped out of the boat and disturbed the delicate balance in our boat. And in the water we went. Not easily discouraged, we flipped our boat right side up, jumped in and paddled on. We even managed to pass the boat in front of us who had quite the lead and finished 5th of 7 teams in our heat. Considering we had a pretty decent time, we actually made it to the finals in our division which are happening tomorrow. If we don't tip, perhaps we will be able to win our heat, and advance to the overall finals.

After the race we went back to school and I spent 6 hours finishing off my paper. The sound of printing is the sweetest sound...

Tonight I hope to make some ground on my abstract...after the Iron Chef.

Nobody spies on ME!

I have been having some computer problems recently. Somehow this week I got spyware on my computer. It was crashing. And I kept getting directed to Online poker when what I really wanted was to look up BC's Occupational Health and Safety Regulations on pentachlorophenol. Luckily, my oh-so-useful brother (he didn't call himself superkev for nothing) came to save the day. And now I can surf in peace without the fear that someone is out there trying to steal my credit card number...

Nothing too exciting happening this week. Big paper due on Monday. As with most things involved with this program, it isn't HARD it's just a lot of work. Also to be completed this weekend: an abstract that was due Wednesday...yikes. Will do that tomorrow between races. Ah yes and tomorrow is Race day. Which may turn into Race weekend if we end up being any good. I'm tempted to throw the race so that I can get back to work...but I also wouldn't mind seeing a nice trophy in the SOEH student area...hmmm...perhaps I should just stop stressing and do my work so that I can goof off.

You might not hear from me for awhile.
1. Monday paper due
2. Literature review due on Tuesday
3. Calculation assignment Wednesday
4. Journal article to read for Wednesday
5. Quiz on Thursday
6. EDMONTON!!! for thanksgiving. Why Edmonton? My dearest friend in the whole world is there.

Exciting things that I learned this week:
1. Michael Robb is moving to Jasper! Not as close as Whistler, but I still forsee a ski/snowboard vacation in the Rockies in my near future...perhaps I'll stop off on my way home for Christmas...Melissa?
2. The people at Jetsgo are jerks. Don't fly with them.
3. I love my fleece pants, and I love that I can wear them in public here and not feel like a pariah.
4. I'm either getting in worse shape, or that hill up to school has gotten steeper.
5. Double Bubble fun fact: Lobsters have 10 legs.
6. If a substance is released into a closed room, the concentration of that substance will increase over time much like the concentration of a drug increases in your body after you take it. Science...gotta love the connections.
7. The occupational exposure limits set by the ACGIH are bunk...so disappointed. Just let me at them and I'll set them properly!

It's possible that the last two points went way over all over your heads, but that just goes to show how obsessed I am right now. Did you ever notice how Jadine rhymes with Hygiene. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Pentachlorophenol, its adverse health effects and its occupational exposure limit are waiting to get written about. I'm excited about setting an occupational exposure limit for the mixture too...Procrastination...fun...

I think I failed to mention that our longboat team is called the Contaminants. Not only are we paddling machines, but we are also quite witty!

P.S. Superkev's blog has a poll. And links. I'm not that talented. I don't even know how he got those faces in his text...All you get is me...uncut, uncensored. Maybe I will change the font, or the colour...