New couch

On Friday night, Garrett and I worked hard. We made 6 trips back and forth down Whyte Ave, moving several different items, including a BBQ for Bonnie, courtesy of Garrett, who upgraded his BBQ with one from his grandma. The main item that we moved was a large couch from Garrett's aunt's house to my house. When I say 'large', I mean LARGE! It's a full sized, old style couch that folds down into a bed. It's like an old fashioned hide-a-bed, and nearly as heavy. We had to manoeuvre this sucker out of Garrett's aunt's basement (difficult, hard work) and then into my basement (which was easier than getting it out of the other basement). Then, we loaded the truck up again with my old little couch and a few things we had in my garage that needed to be taken to the salvation army. Eventually, we were all done our hauling but had to organize my living room a bit. As you can see, the new couch is BROWN VELVET, very chique. Apparently, this couch is so old that by the 1970's it needed to be recovered, perhaps explaining the brown colour choice a little better. In any case, I put some of my blankets over it (which, I will admit are not especially beautiful either, but they sure are comfy) and settled in. It's quite comfortable and since I am still a student, it's tough to turn down free furniture, especially when I've been wanting a full size couch that I can stretch out on.The cat was pretty unsure of this behemoth at first, but she settled in pretty quickly.

Who's the Champion?

On Thursday night I went to a concert with Joelle and Ian on campus. Three bands were playing, two of whom I had never heard their music and the last of which I had heard one song on the radio. So I didn't really know what to expect from the show. It started off a little poor due to the fact that the sound quality in the Lounge was pretty bad and they spent a long time doing sound-check. The doors were supposed to open at 7pm, however we didn't get in until 7:50 - needless to say the show started late and proceeded even later. However, we were patient and grabbed ourselves a beer in the beer garden and a good spot to view the show. The beer section, unfortunately, was to the far right of the stage, while the all ages section dominated the rest of the room, including in front of the stage. We watched the first act from the right of the stage, but because we had a good location we could see really well.

This first act was a band called "You Say Party! We Say Die!" and they totally impressed us. They were made up of the usual band components - drums, guitars, keyboard, singer - and they also had this funky funny little keyboard thing that I can't really describe. Their style is hard to describe - rock with traces of light punk - and their lead singer had a fabulously distinct voice, although her clothing would have landed her in a spot on 'Go fug yourself' (www.gofugyourself.com), which is my favorite fashion blog. She was wearing a white blouse with a high-waisted blue straight miniskirt. High-waisted is the problem, because it made her look like she had a paunch tummy, when I'm sure she had a perfectly normal body shape. In any case, their music mostly made up for her bad clothing, but I guess part of it is artistic freedom. She also wore a red mask over her eyes, that sort of looked like Robin's mask (you know, out of Batman and Robin).

In any case, after the first band we decided to go to the bathroom, however to get there we had to leave the beer section and would need to line up again to get back in. We left and just went to the all-ages section after that, which allowed us to get really close to the stage for the rest of the bands. The next band was a french band called "Malajube". I thought they were fine, but nothing special. I enjoyed their music but can't find anything noteworthy to write about them, except that they didn't seem to be able to speak any english and spoke to the predominantly anglophone crowd in french the whole time (even though there were a significant number of french people at the show).

The last band, the headliner, was the best by far, which I guess isn't surprising. DJ Champion has become quite popular in the last little while, and likely you've heard one of their songs on the radio before, even though you wouldn't know who the band was. DJ Champion isn't a DJ in the conventional sense, in that he doesn't simply spin techno hits out and play with the beat of songs already written. DJ Champion started off his show with a couple laptops and his mixing board and began spinning the beats. After a few minutes, he called on the first guitarist, who came on stage and upon DJ Champion's signal, started playing his guitar with the beats. Next came on the second guitarist, who subsequently joined in, deepening the quality of the music. And so forth until all five guitarists were on stage. The band played for an hour and 15 minutes straight, without any breaks between songs but just transitioning between them. DJ Champion was almost a conductor, coordinating the guitarists with handsignals to let them know what they were to play next. It was just fantastic! Lastly, they had a female singer who accompanied them for half the songs and had a very distinct voice. All in all, it was super fun and we danced for the whole time!

The hazards of being home too much

I am a little past halfway in completing my candidacy. Surprisingly, I haven't had much trouble writing about interesting things on my blog over the past 3 weeks (or at least, what I think are interesting things), despite the fact that I've been home most every day. I've kept myself busy in the evenings and weekends doing fun things to keep my home time to a manageable level. I am definately getting a little stir crazy, and have spent a few days working at a nearby cafe rather than at home, just for a change of scenery. However, this requires that I spend some money while at the cafe, so it's just cheaper to stay home the majority of the time.

The downside to this is the fact that I've started snacking a lot. At first, it didn't seem like I was snacking any more than I would when I was at the lab all day. However, the past few days have been quite bad for snacking, perhaps because I've been a bit more bored after these long weeks at home. I also blame it on the fact that I received a whole bunch of chocolate for my birthday and I've been happily working my way through them. Plus, since I'm bored at home, I filled some time yesterday by baking chocolate chip cookies. Thus, many factors have contributed to the fact that I am snacking a ton while doing nothing physical.

For example, yesterday I ate a box of chocolate covered almonds, 4 fancy Harrod's chocolates and the ears of a white Lindt bunny. Then I made cookies and ate...well...at least four of them. Maybe more. I lost track (bad sign). Today, I know for sure I ate 6 cookies, although I didn't chow down on nearly as much chocolate. I would like to add that I did eat a lunch that consisted of a salad and some leftover pasta, so I am not ONLY eating snack food. But it definately seems like I'm eating more snack food lately...at least I don't tend to get fat from my chocolate addiction!

Meowy Birthday

As a well documented cat lover, it's not surprising I tend to get quite a few cat cards. Here, I share them with you:From my sister and Ray:"Before rushing into a face-lift, Kim checks out how it looks on the cat". (I do not know how they got the card to actually have my name on it. Fluke? Planned? We may never know!)
From a friend:And inside: "Happy birthday from your furry godmother"

Galaxy-alicious

To conclude my birthday week, a bunch of us went to Galaxyland for the evening on Friday. This is the amusement park contained within West Edmonton Mall. Here are some photos from the evening:
Kaylin and Joel on the swings:Heather, Kim and Garrett on the Space Shot:Bonnie and Catherine on crazy ride (don't know the name):Garrett and Joel at the top of the crazy ride:And at the bottom:Kim, Bonnie and Heather on the backwards bouncing ride:Some silly goofballs:Heather and Bonnie on the bumper cars:Ian, Joelle, Catherine and Garson on the Mindbender:The Mindbender (I was proud I got this shot, it took me a few tries):3D glasses for the 3D theatre:And Kim, Kaylin and Heather on the carousel:Over the three hours we were there, we rode a lot of rides, however only a few of us managed to ride the huge Mindbender roller coaster, because they close it ALL THE TIME. I support routine maintenance, but it's only supposed to go on for 20 minutes every two hours. Instead, twice when we got in line, they were JUST closing and they stayed closed for 40 minutes. Does that make sense? They were closed so much, so we kept trying to go back and get on it, but we never managed to. So we were pretty disappointed about that.

It turns out that I'm not as good at managing rides as I thought I was. By the end of the night I didn't feel very good, so when we went out for a birthday beer, I ended up having a birthday gingerale while my stomach settled down. Note to self, many rides after dinner - bad idea!

Great Birthday

Today is my birthday, and I had a great time at it! Garrett went all out and did a fantastic job of making sure my day was great, but it's easy to have a great day when he's around! In any case, I opened some of my presents this morning, including a card from my Granny and Grandpa, chocolates and a cute shirt from Amanda and Ray (see pictures below), an angel figurine (and some money) from Mom and Dad, and chocolate and a spa package from Garrett. That's right, a spa package! And not just any spa package, but a chocolate spa package (sense a theme here? I might be a teensy bit chocolate crazy). I get a chocolate pedicure and a chocolate bath! Sounds absolutely awesome and I plan to use it the day after my candidacy exam, to finish unwinding from that stressful event.

Today I worked at home most of the day. Even though it's my birthday, I still did a bit of work, although not that much because I was on the phone or msn with family and friends a lot. I talked to my Mom, Dad, sister, brother and brother-in-law. I msned with several friends and also got a ton of birthday wishes on Facebook. It was really nice!

In the late afternoon, I met a bunch of friends at Avenue, where we meet every Thursday for a beer or two (convenient that my birthday fell on a Thursday), then we went to a sushi place where I'd made reservations for ten people. We filled up on sushi and then cut up the wonderful cake that Garrett had picked up and brought along for me. Here are the pictures:Me cutting the cake (note the shirt I am wearing, it is the one my sister and brother-in-law gave me:We were only given 9 plates, so I ate my piece off the cake itself:Great face!It seems we only took pictures of me at the dinner, but I swear other people were there too - you can see for sure that Bonnie was there and someone else (Garrett) had to take the pictures.
My friends gave me some great gifts too: Bonnie got me a couple books I wanted, plus a sippy cup (you know, it won't spill in bed so I can have water while laying down. It may seem weird, but every night I wake up and have to sit up to drink water from my mug, so now with the sippy cup, I don't have to sit up), a gift certificate to a salon and a ticket to a concert with my friends next week. Plus I got a bunch of cat birthday cards (big surprise? I think not) that I will use for a blog entry sometime soon.
So, thank you to everyone who called, mailed, ate with, emailed, msned or texted me today! You've all made it so special!

Je Keg Bien

Last night we had our dodgeball team dinner at the Keg. One of our members, Gabriel, works there and managed to score us a great deal: 40$ off of all food and most drinks, including wine, beer and liquor (just not high end stuff). So we met there at 7 and stayed for 3 hours, eating, drinking and being merry. It was really fun and we ate some great food: yummy steaks, delightful wines and scrumptious desserts (called Chocolate Heaven, no less)! It was satisfying to celebrate our successful season this way, ending it with a bang!

Dom Rep souvenir

Garrett and I went to Garrett's parent's house Sunday night for dinner. Garrett's parents recently returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic and brought us back a few gifts. I got this beautiful necklace that I really love:It's hard to take a good picture of it with my camera - it can't focus close enough. I will try to remember to ask Garrett to take a picture with his fancy camera, to do the pendant justice.

Small world

I've told you all how I joined Facebook last week. I've been slowly getting more and more people onto my 'Friends' list, including this one guy I played ultimate with last summer. Once I had added him to my list, he realized where my hometown was. He was totally surprised, because he's spent a lot of time there with his relatives and knows the area well. He started telling me who his cousins are (both my brother and I graduated with his cousins) and what he loved about the area (the beaches!) and that he learned to play ultimate out there at one of the parks (the very one where I played for years before moving away). It was crazy to me how small the world is, that this guy I met randomly in Edmonton knows people I know from my hometown, and has played ultimate where I did. In fact, I feel like he probably played there while I was still out there, so we may have even played ultimate together before I moved to Edmonton. How crazy is that!

New plant

Check out this new funky plant that I got on the weekend. I can't remember what it is called, but it looks pretty neat and seems fairly hardy. I hope the pink part stays on all the time.

Throw it at her face!

Tonight my dodgeball team, 'Je Dodge Bien', won first place in our league!!

It was a close game, with the winning score of 7-6.

It was a little tense today, however we managed to keep our cool despite a lot of distraction from the other team. You know how sometimes it's hard to define what exactly it is that annoys you? Well, that was NOT the case tonight!

The last time we played this team, it was a huge deal because we were playing to tie the score (they were up one point) and this girl on their team got hit with the ball and ran off the court crying. I want to make sure I explain this correctly so I don't sound like a jerk, but she wasn't hit unfairly. In fact, she was cocky and rude all game and was getting right in there to play her share. So she got hit and it shocked her and she ran off crying. Fine. It turned out that she was fine after all, not seriously injured, HOWEVER she made such a big deal about it as she took off that half her team ran after her to make sure she was ok. Since they LEFT the court, that meant that they should have forfeited that point. However, the game coordinate (aka Ref) decided they would WIN the game, rather than tie it, because we should be good enough sports since their girl was hurt. I argued and thought it should be a tie, since we won that point as they all ran off...Needless to say this didn't sit well with any of us.

In any case, tonight we played them for the championship. And there was this girl, again, shooting her mouth off.

The first thing that was annoying but not really beyond the bounds of sportmanship was their excessive cheering anytime they hit one of us. Fine, it's a psychological game to rattle us and get your team pumped. But then the stupid girl (from now on, referred to as SG) started counting down everytime we had the ball. In dodgeball, you are only allowed to hold the ball for 10 seconds. Most people honour this rule, and if they don't, someone usually just yells 'Ten seconds' and they toss the ball away. But this girl thought she was sooooo smart to start counting off on us. Not only was it rude and loud (preventing us from hearing our own teammates), it was moving into the realm of heckling, which I think is inappropriate in a sport that is pushing for good sportsmanship. This issue was quickly resolved when I yelled back at her "THAT'S NOT NECESSARY!", which quickly shut her up (never let it be said that I don't get the job done as captain).

The last thing that really put me over the edge, so that I brought it up with the other team's captain after the game, was something SG yelled while I was on the court with several of my male teammates. There were three guys on the other team with the balls ready to throw, and they were aiming at me, when SG yelled "THROW IT AT HER FACE!". She could only mean me, since I was the only girl on the court for my team at the time.

Hmm...I wonder why she thought that comment would be appropriate? Not only is it incredibly unsportsmanlike, it was super rude and very personal! I was pretty angry about it, so, as I said, I brought it up with the game coordinator and the captain of her team. That was definately crossing the line. We are supposed to be grown-ups playing competitive sports, not little kids just trying to hurt each other as we throw balls at each other...

Unfortunately, there won't be any repercussions for her, except that everyone knows she's a jerk and tries to get her out first on the dodgeball court. I should take comfort in the fact that she's a pretty bad athlete...and I guess I'm a better sport than her too.

Dear Dogs and Cats

I got this email from my labmate and I thought it was really cute. Some of you may have seen it before, but if not, I hope you like it!

Dear Dogs and Cats,
The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate of food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.
The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the objective. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.
I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.
For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years. Canine or feline attendance is not mandatory.
The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough!

To pacify you, I have posted the following message on our front door:
To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Complain About Our Pets:
1. They live here. You don't.
2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. (That's why they call it "fur"niture.)
3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.

Remember: Dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
1. Eat less
2. Don't ask for money all the time
3. Are easier to train
4. Usually come when called
5. Never drive your car
6. Don't hang out with drug-using friends
7. Don't smoke or drink
8. Don't worry about having to buy the latest fashions
9. Don't wear your clothes
10. Don't need a gazillion dollars for college, and
11. If they get pregnant, you can sell their children

Oddly addicting, for no good reason

Anyone heard of Facebook?

Probably, tons of you have. It seems that all of a sudden, Facebook is the new 'cool' thing to do. Everyone is on it! Everyone is doing it!

And what exactly 'it' is, I haven't totally figured out yet.

I like Facebook, for the most part. I joined it a few days ago and I have added a bunch of my friends as my 'Friends'. It's kindof neat to find out who else is on it. But other than adding people, I have yet to find anything super intriguing about the website. I add people, maybe I mesage them a bit, but there are a lot of people I talk to on a regular basis anyway, so why do I need to message them on a website?

I guess there must be something to it, since everyone is doing it and I keep going back to check on my page...but if anyone can pin down the niche this website fills I'd be greatly appreciative for the definition!

Winter vs. Spring: the saga

There is a show-down going on out here right now, between Winter and Spring. Winter is fighting for its rights, but Spring, in conjunction with the power of Sun, is clenching its fists and swinging in hard with the upper cut.

I saw GRASS today, people. GRASS!! GREEN GRASS! I have not seen this phenomenon in Edmonton since Halloween. HALLOWEEN! That is how long we've been surviving in a white and brown world of snow, ice and dirt.

Spring is finally showing up this week. Last week, we were sitting at minus 15 and now it's getting up to plus 10. Party!

One of the things I like about Edmonton is our perspective on temperatures. When I lived in Vancouver, I'd never dream of calling plus 5 warm and balmy. Now, however, it was plus 2 when I left my house this morning, and I thought "Sweet! It's SO WARM out!". Today, I saw people in skirts, capris, shorts and light jackets. Not a hide nor hair of toques, gloves or scarves. And it was only plus 5 at the time! After several months of an average of minus 15 (and we were below average a lot this year), anything near zero feels fantastic.

While I love the fact that winter is receding, the melting snow does provide some difficulties for the average pedestrian. In fact, most sidewalks are flooded with puddles at the least, or sport mini lakes at the worst. This is because partial melting produces water that is trapped within snowbanks and has nowhere to go. Enter wet feet. The other problem with this time of year is that it's still below zero at night, so all our nice puddles become sheets of ice every evening, increasing the hazard to the foot traveller. And don't even get me started on the half frozen slush pools that are hidden in dusk or the giant puddles that splash the unwary when the cars drive by...

Despite all these complaints, I am excited for it all to be gone. Hooray for spring! Goodbye snow! I will put up with wet feet for a few weeks in order to get rid of it all and move on to warmer times.

Early birthday gift

Today I received a package in the mail that was a small part of Garrett's birthday present for me. It was a t-shirt from one of my favorite online comic books: "Piled Higher and Deeper", or PhD. Here is the t-shirt:I'm sure this shirt is really truly amusing to grad students alone, but I really like it and plan to wear it tomorrow.

INCUBUS!

One of my favorite bands is the American band called 'Incubus'. Some of you may have heard their radio hits 'Drive', 'Megalomaniac' and 'Talk Shows on Mute'. Their new album came out a month or so ago and I picked it up, loving all the new songs. They've played some of their new songs on the radio, I just can't recall which ones.

After Christmas, once Garrett and I had driven all the way back to Edmonton, I realized that we had JUST MISSED the Incubus concert in Vancouver. Incubus rarely tours and when they do, they don't hit many locations in Canada. So I was so upset that I'd missed it. I had even signed up with Ticketmaster to get an alert should Incubus ever come my way. Seems that their system FAILED me!

But a few days ago, I was excitingly surprised to hear that Incubus is coming to EDMONTON!! YA!

So myself and several friends who were equally excited (well, actually probably a little less excited than me) arranged to get some tickets for their May concert.

In two months, I will get to see Incubus live in concert. And it will be fantastic.

It Starts...

I feel like the title of this blog should be spoken in the wispy baboon voice of that crazy baboon-shaman from the Lion King animated movie. Does anyone know who I'm talking about? I love that crazy monkey...

Anyway, the title is also refering to the START OF MY CANDIDACY!!!

For those non-graduate school types, this is a BIG DEAL!

For those familiar with 'the comps' or 'comprehensive exams' at other universities, this is the same thing. The format (and name, apparently) is different in every department and every university. Once I complete my candidacy, I am called a 'candidate for PhD' whereas right now I'm called something like 'provisional candidate for PhD'. So I get to drop the 'provisional' part, which is good because it's all a mouthful.

So, basically I am spending four weeks writing a 20 page grant on a topic I know nothing about, after which I study for two weeks and then undergo a 3 hour formal oral examination. YAY! So, if my blog entries are a tad boring in the upcoming weeks, it's because it is boring being at home writing for four weeks. And if my blog entries start to get a little too crazy or weird, send some help for me because I've gone off the deep end from boredom.

Untimely shoe purchase

Last summer, I destroyed my Nike sporty sandals during our hike in Kootenay National Park. By the time we made it back to the car, they had basically torn apart and were promptly tossed in the garbage. Thus, I had no sporty sandals for the upcoming (oh so future) summer.

While at the mall last night, I spotted a sale on Merrell sandals and went to check them out. I found these little beauties:They were cheap, cute and totally comfortable. Sold! I bought them and look forward to using them for our camping/hiking/canoe trip to Utah sometime in May or June. However, it is still strongly winter here and I will have to wait...at least 2 months before I can wear them. Bummer.

Miracle Whip Antics

For some reason, I have a mental block regarding how much mayonnaise is in my refrigerator.

Last September, when Garrett was just heading up to Fort McMurray for his field study, I was almost out of mayo and I bought a new 1L container of it. However, I forgot that I had bought it, and the next time I was at the grocery store, I picked up another one. Then, Garrett gave me a bunch of his perishable food to use and store, including a half filled container of mayonnaise. This then, left me with FOUR containers of mayo in my fridge!! Which, even I can admit, is quite excessive. I ended up giving my friend one of the bottles and I promptly finished the mostly-empty one, which left me with just two bottles for awhile.

However, as if this experience did not teach me, yesterday I bought a large container of mayo (1.5L) because it was on sale AND it was on my list of things to buy. When I got home, I opened the fridge to see an unopened 1L sitting right in front of me, as well as my almost empty bottle in the door of the fridge. What is wrong with me? Why am I unconsciously trying to hoard mayonnaise?

I gave the unopened 1L to Garrett and told him not to let me buy mayonnaise ever, unless I've gone home and confirmed I only have one bottle in my fridge.

Garrett's Flickr Page

Garrett has started up a Flickr page showcasing his photos, so I thought I'd put his website link here and let you all go and check it out. Here it is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tea_earl_grey_hot/

It will also be posted as a permanent link on my blog site.

Missing: Favorite Toque

Seen below:(Yes, I know the picture is sideways. I can't figure out how to fix this problem, since the photo is horizontal in all other photo-viewing programs).

I wore it to class on Wednesday morning. I entered the building and took my toque, gloves and scarf off. I carried them into the classroom with me and put them in my backpack. I pulled out my notebook, sat through class and put the notebook away. I walked indoors through the hospital to my lab. Once in my lab, only my gloves and scarf were in my bag. What the...?

I immediately retraced my steps all the way back to class. No toque. Checked with the coffee shop near my class. No toques turned in. My classroom had another class in it, so I couldn't go and check right away, but I went back at the end of the day - no toque.

This morning, I went to the main office in the building where my classroom is, looking for the lost and found. They didn't have one, but they recommended I check one floor up at Building Services (also known as the janitors). No lost and found there and no toques turned in. Building Services recommended I check one floor up in the Nursing Department office - no toque. The Nursing office recommended I check across the hall with Undergraduate Services - no toque. The Undergraduate Services office recommended I check with Building Services. This is where I stopped my search, since I was now going in circles. Although not for lack of trying, I was unable to get my toque back.

Did someone grab it from the classroom where I am pretty sure I lost it, and keep it for themselves? Because I find that weird. I think wearing someone else's toque is really creepy. I guess they could wash it, but still...

So now I am stuck wearing my old one. I liked the grey one. I am going to look for a new one tomorrow, since winter is still in Edmonton in full force (it was minus 21 when I went to school this morning) and I will need to wear it for another two months still!

Sweet pictures

Here are some of my favorite pictures that Garrett and Ian (Joelle's boyfriend) took on our drive down. They were all taken in Southern Alberta in the range lands just before we got into the mountains.