Summer has arrived!

For lack of something more interesting to write about, I'll tell you all how summer has finally arrived in Edmonton! I came back from Vancouver on Monday, and BAM, summer was here! It was 26 degrees today, with anticipated high's of 29 and 28 all weekend. Note, if you will, the coincidence of my return with the arrival of summer....hmmmm...

However, along with the arrival of this great weather, so too the emergence of lots of mosquitos. Edmonton has always haboured a much larger mosquito population than I ever experienced on the West Coast, however this year is starting off as a doozy on the mosquito front. The 'skeeters swarm us in the back yard and at the ultimate fields. They attack us through our clothing. Simply spraying your exposed skin is no longer acceptable - you must coat your entire body, clothing and all, with a decent amount of Deet! While Deet isn't actually that good for you, it seems better than being eaten alive by a dozen and more little blood suckers. Currently, I'm itchy in about 25 places due to the merciless little bugs, simply from bites received in the last two days DESPITE copious amounts of bug spray.

Lazy hazy weekend

I went home for the weekend and spent a pleasant and relaxing time with my family. It was a lazy weekend, as the cat can confirm:We went to the beach one evening to watch the cruise ships go by, and saw an eagle on an island across the way using our binoculars. I don't have a picture of it, but here we are on the beach:We spent a lot of time on the back patio, since the weather was pretty decent and the patio is so nice at this time of year. Mom and Dad have done a great job getting all their plants in order.On Sunday, Kyle came home to visit for the day. We played crib nearly all day. I had a super duper hand at the end of one game, but I couldn't use it because Kyle and Dad beat us at that point. It would have given me 24 points!! HUGE!! The highest score you can possibly get in one hand is 29 points.Now I'm back to the grind, focusing on getting some more lab work done and getting back into routine.

Winery review

As promised, here are the pictures from our winery tours in Kelowna a few weeks ago. It took awhile for me to get the pictures.
Quail's Gate Winery:Mission Hill Winery:Some horses and foals we spotted along our drive:Sumac Ridge winery:

Where is spring?

On Tuesday night, Je Huck Bien engaged in another game of ultimate. On our way to the game, the weather was sunny and warm! We were excited to finally have some good weather for our game!

But, as we pulled up to the field, we saw in the distance some dark, rain filled clouds, inexorably moving our way. Anticipating getting wet, we put away our stuff so that if it did rain, only our bodies would get wet while we were on the field, and not our clothes.

Surprisingly, we didn't get rained on. We did, however, have a storm roll through on us. A wind storm. One second it was calm and clear, the next second it was blowing so hard we could hardly hear each other. It was impossible to throw the frisbee between players. The temperature plummeted and we froze as we ran around trying to keep the game going. Every throw was pushed about 30 yards away from where it was supposed to go. Usually, it takes about 3-5 minutes for a team to score a point. This point took at least 35 minutes. It was long and painful and fairly unpleasant. I hoped that the storminess would blow through quickly, with that sort of wind pushing it along, but the wind remained fairly strong for the duration of the game. It was pretty disappointing and everyone was really chilled by the end. Add to the fact that we ended up losing by two points and the team we played were jerks, and it was a disappointing evening. I hope next week the weather is better! Where is our spring weather? I've had enough of the five to ten degree range...

If a penny is good luck...

...then how much awesomeness is coming my way by finding this little sucker?I found him in the dirt in my driveway the other day. Score!

I already spent him, on part of a chai latte. Yum.

Look out! Tetley.

I was shopping. Garrett's friend Rick tagged along with us. I needed Tetley tea - Orange Pekoe. I was nearly out.

It costs 9$ for 108 tea bags.

It costs 12$ for double that - 216 tea bags.

Rick, helpful guy that he is, encouraged me that I did, indeed, NEED 216 tea bags and that it WAS a great deal because for only three dollars more, I was getting twice as much.

Here is my old tea box:
Here is my new tea box compared to my old tea box:Please note the striking difference in size.

In summary, while it may seem like a great idea to buy a lifetime's supply of Tetley tea, if one does not have the space for said large box, stick with the smaller option.

Progress report: First attack

Quite awhile ago, I purchased a large rectangular table with 6 chairs at a garage sale for 50$. The table and chairs are solid wood and sturdily made. A great price, no? Wait until you see what it looks like: Yes, it is, indeed, neon green and black. Functional, but not necessarily esthetically pleasing unless you are looking for some 'POP' and energy in your kitchen.
For awhile now, I've been planning the refurbishment of my table set. I prepared, researched and planned, purchasing my supplies and working out a strategy. I would use the palm sander my Grandpa gave me and sand down the chairs to roughen them up, allowing me to repaint them completely black. The table top, I would strip the neon green from, painting the rest of the legs and frame in a similar manner to the chair.

First thing I have learned in this process: a planned strategy is quickly tossed out the window.

Luckily, on Wednesday I did some investigatory sanding on one of the chairs and realized that the top layer of paint was thoroughly chipping away under the sander. Seems like a good thing, hey? It isn't, though, because it meant I had to get ALL of the top layer of paint off before I can put my next coat on, otherwise my paint would begin chipping in no time as well. As I worked away at the chair, I realized the imbeciles before me, who had not only thought neon green was a great alternative to simple wood, had indeed painted their glossy black over a layer of very glossy forest green. Thus, the black did not stick and resulted in more work on my end.

On Saturday and Monday, Garrett and I, with some excellent subbing in by Bonnie, worked away on the chairs. We stripped the paint with biologically safe paint stripper (much less nasty than chemical stripper and safer for the cat, although a bit more elbow grease required), sanded with the palm sander, followed by hand sanding in all the details. Overall, we put in 22.5 man hours on the chairs this weekend and only completely finished 3. Of the other three, two are mostly finished, after some hand sanding and one is half done.

This is us working in the garage on Saturday - it was really cold that day:See the difference in the chair now compared to the 'before' picture above?Here's my crew, hard away at work on Monday. The weather was better, with bits of sun and lots of wind, but overall decent working weather:
I will keep you updated on our progress over the next...um, well probably months. I'd like to finish it by July, which I feel is a realistic goal, since it's taking so long and I have a lot of other things on the go. Seems like if you want to do home renovations, it needs to be your only hobby to get anywhere close to completing it promptly!

Tony Rock in da house

On Friday night, Garrett, Bonnie, Joelle and I went to the Comic Strip in West Edmonton Mall. My friend Lindsay got us free tickets, so we met her and her husband there and enjoyed an evening full of laughter. Normally, tickets to this comedy club are 25-30$, so the only time we've been there before was when we received free tickets a previous time.

The headliner for the show was Tony Rock - also known as Chris Rock's brother. Apparently, there are 8 brothers and 1 sister in the Rock family, and Tony is Chris' younger brother. He looks quite like Chris Rock, but has definately achieved success through his own skills as a comedian, rather than through his relationship with his brother. He put on a great act, although he did have some references to American politics and racial relations that I couldn't quite relate to. Other than that, though, he was entertaining without being overly crude or swearing too profusely. The MC of the show was very talented too, although he did rely on swearing and making fun of the crowd to get a laugh out of us. The opening act was pretty weak and I felt bad for the comedian - apparently it was his second standup show, so he was pretty nervous. It makes you realize how hard it must actually be to make a crowd of people laugh. The second act was good, although I don't have any comments in particular, so it must not have been that memorable. Overall, the show was fun and we had a good time at the club working out our laughing muscles.

Tough first game

Tonight was our first 'real league' game with our Love Handler team and we were matched against one of the tougher teams in the league. Our team contains many solid players, however this year we have a few less players, plus two of the couples on our team now have 2 month old babies that they bring to the game. Thus, one half of the couple must take care of the baby during each point, leaving the rest of us to cover a bit more of the game time. In any case, I definately played the hardest tonight than I have yet in league, leaving me feeling tired and my legs sore.

Garrett is feeling the same, I think, since he was up way earlier than me today for school AND played an amazing game. He's really brought his play up a level this year, and it has totally impressed everyone on the team. His command of the disc is superior and his cuts are strong and well-timed. He's making great bids for the disc against guys much taller than him, and he's shutting down the offense when he's playing defense. Don't let him tell you otherwise - he's turning into a fantastic ultimate player! I'm just glad I introduced him to the game and that he likes it as much as I do! I'll try to get some pictures of him playing this summer, so I can show you how awesome he is!

Bonnie's Birthday Party a la Grec

On Monday night, we celebrated Bonnie's birthday at a Greek restaurant called 'Koutouki Taverna'. I made the reservation and 9 of us went out, however I didn't realize how expensive the place was going to be! I mean, it's Greek food - it shouldn't cost 25-40$/plate, should it? I felt pretty bad when everybody showed up (most of us being students) and realized it was quite pricey. However, we were committed by that point, so we all purchased a mid-priced group meal, which allowed us to sample a number of different Greek dishes. It was pretty yummy, although super salty and not the best Greek food I've ever had (and hence, should not have cost as much as it did). In any case, we had a nice time and Garrett took some pictures, so here they are:Actually, the inside of the restaurant was really neat - it had vines growing all over the ceiling.We sang 'Happy Birthday' to Bonnie, although it was a little embarrassing (for all of us! We're bad singers).

Another entry about my cat...

I am quite happy with Pumpkin's progress at her training. While I was home working on my candidacy, I spent two days teaching her to come when called. This is one of the simplest things to teach a cat, since you just sit somewhere in the house, call them, and give them a treat when they arrive. Pumpkin learned right away to come running to get a treat, however I continued to reinforce the behavior for an extra day or two so she wouldn't forget. Even now after several months, she still remembers that she gets a treat if she comes when called. When she's outside playing in the yard and I need to leave, I can just call her and she comes in to receive her treat. Bingo, easily done.

The other 'trick' that I'm glad she's caught on to, is catching spiders. She started off naturally playing with them when she first saw them around my apartment last year. I encouraged this behavior by giving her a treat when I found her playing with/eating a spider. She's progressed to the point where every evening she seems to go searching for spiders in the nooks and crannies of my apartment. While this does creep me out a little, because it implies my house is spider-ridden, I am impressed with her perseverance to earn a treat by finding spider prey. Sometimes she eats the spiders and sometimes she doesn't, but she does bring them out of the corners and play with them enough so that they aren't crawling all over the place when I pick them up and flush them. Unfortunately, all of the (big!) spiders I've seen this year are of the same variety, making me suspect that a nest hatched somewhere nearby and many of them infested my house. One more reason I'm glad I have a cat - spider removal. Move over, Garrett, Pumpkin's the new spidey-catcher in town!

A bit of a Spiderman 3 spoiler...so don't read past the first 3 paragraphs if you want to see the movie

I forgot to mention that we went to see Spiderman 3 last Monday.

It was terrible. Don't waste your money on seeing it in the theatre. There's no point. You might as well flush your twelve dollars down the toilet and use your extra three hours to do something useful.

It's too bad that Spiderman 3 had a different the director than the first two movies. I really, really liked the first two movies. They were fun and fanciful, but not frivolous or unbelievable.

Spidey 3 was overly long, super cheesy, boring and stupid. Within the first 30 minutes I was already bored and super cheesed-out. As the movie progressed, the cheesiness persisted (picture Spiderman swinging in to save the day, in slow motion, in front of a large, gently rippling American flag - blech) and the plot became confusing and incomplete. In fact, five coexisting plots prevented any single plot from being fully developed, resulting in an overal poor storyline. An abundance of villains accompanied the tangle of plots, several of which flip sides at different points to become good guys, where they proceed to have heart-to-heart moments with Spiderman. Which viewer wants to see superheroes discussing their hardships and forgiving each other for all the wrongs between them? In addition, several characters 'die' and then come back to life again (eg. blown up point blank, only to survive with a disfigured face, or, pounded twenty times by a huge hand onto a steel girder, only to survive and kick some more butt). Lastly, there's far too much footage on Mary Jane's and Peter's relationship, including a random dance scene.

In summary, I was very disappointed with this last Spiderman movie and regretably, won't be able to complete my home collection of this trilogy because I refuse to buy this crappy movie.

Ultimate: spotlight on Kim

We played four games of ultimate on Saturday and three on Sunday. Over the course of these games, one of our team members took a ton of action shots using her super fancy zoom lens. I just saved the ones of me, so here's an overwhelming number of pictures of me playing ultimate!On the line, before the game has started.I can't tell if I threw the frisbee in the above shot, or was on defense. Oh well.I think this is one of the funniest pictures of me playing. Funny face! But hey, I'm not worrying about my facial expressions when I'm out there on the field. (It's hard to see, but I am catching a white frisbee in the above picture. Yes, I know, I'm not very tanned and the frisbee blends into me).On the sideline. Very, very focused.YEA! I look awesome! Except that I didn't end up getting that frisbee.Big defense.

Alright, there you have it. More pictures than you ever needed to see of me playing ultimate!

Sunflicker weekend

Last weekend, Joelle, Ian, Bonnie and I drove down to Kelowna. Bonnie went to visit her friend there, while the rest of us played in the Sunflicker ultimate tournament. We actually left on Thursday night, with the intention of camping in Yoho National Park and completing our drive on Friday. This would allow us to break up our drive to Kelowna, which is about 10 hours long.

It was a rainy night when we took off from Edmonton, and the weather only got worse the farther we went into the mountains. When we arrived at Yoho, we were dismayed to see at least a foot of residual snow still on the ground, as well as snow falling all around us. Gross! Personally, I was not prepared to camp in the snow. I had packed with the intention of camping in Kelowna - warm, dry, no snow. We were getting pretty tired by the time we reached Yoho, so we decided instead of driving all night, we would try to find a cheap hotel in Golden.

We stayed here:The Golden Gate Motel. Very clever name. However, it was only 65$ for the four of us. Here is our room:Small, old and with bedspreads matching the curtains. We all know the type. At least we had a good night sleep and an early start for the next day.

We arrived in Kelowna around 1pm and drove out to the camp where we'd be staying for the tournament. We were one of the first few people there, so we had choice pick of cabins/tent spots. We ended up saving a cabin for our team arriving later that day, but decided setting up our tents would be more comfortable than the plywood bunks in the cabins.Above: the campsite. Note gazebo by the lake - this is where the dance/party is held.Our tents - the first ones up, placed strategically in the farthest corner from the party area.

After dropping off our camping gear, we headed out to explore some of the Okanagan's best sites - the wineries! First, we stopped at a place called 'Quail's Gate'. This was a smaller winery with a very quaint little wine shop, where the most inexperienced and nervous server let us sample a number of their wines. Truly, his hands were shaking so bad that we thought he might spill wine on us at one point. In any case, we forgave him his nerves and Joelle and Ian ended up purchasing a few bottles. None of these wines particularly appealed to me, so we moved on to the next winery - the oh-so-famous Mission Hill winery.

Mission Hill is to other wineries what Disneyland is to shopping mall carnivals. It's best described as an estate, with exquisitely groomed grounds, fancy architecture and a very well orchestrated ambiance. I will get some more pictures of Mission Hill from Ian later this week, so I'll post them when I get them. It truly is an impressive winery. We sampled wines here for a small fee and found a number that we liked. We ended up purchasing a bottle or two each before moving on to our last stop.

Sumac Ridge was our last stop. It's a cute little winery with really great wine - in fact, I was wishing I hadn't bought wine at Mission Hill once we got there, because their wine was just as good and much cheaper! Here are some pictures I took at this winery:After our touring, we dropped Bonnie off with her friend and headed back to camp to get a good night sleep before the tournament kicked off.

Useless response from the government

A week or so ago, I wrote the Alberta government regarding the rent hardships ongoing in Edmonton. If you look back at Monday April 30th, you'll see my blog entry on it. Here is the government's reply to my email:

"Thank you for your inquiry.

On April 24, 2007 the Government of Alberta responded to the recommendations of the Affordable Housing Task Force with a series of measures for Albertans.

Effective immediately, rent will increase less often and landlords will need to provide more notice before turning a rental unit into a condominium. Amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act and Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Act will be introduced in the current sitting of the Legislature that will limit rent increases to once a year. This will apply to both periodic and fixed-term tenancies. If the 365th day occurs during the term of a fixed term tenancy, the landlord will not be able to increase the rent until the tenancy agreement ends. The minimum three-month rent increase notice for periodic residential tenancies and six-month notice for mobile home site tenants will continue to be in place. As well, under the amendments, landlords wanting to end a tenancy to undertake major renovations or to convert a rental unit to a condominium will need to provide at least one year’s notice. A year’s notice is also required to convert mobile home sites to condominium units or to obtain vacant possession for other land uses. No rental increases will be allowed during that year. If passed, the amendments will be retroactive to April 24, 2007, and will be in effect for two years.

The government priorities are addressing challenges today and building for the future. As such, Alberta will not be introducing any limits on the amount of rent increases. We are aware that economic growth is creating housing pressures and Municipal Affairs and Housing offers several housing programs available to assist Albertans.

If rent causes a financial hardship, the contact number in Edmonton is (780) 422-0122. If you are calling from within Alberta but outside the Edmonton dialling area, phone 310-0000 toll-free and follow the instructions.

OR

If rent causes a financial hardship, the contact number in Calgary is (403) 297-7453. If you are calling from within Alberta but outside the Calgary dialling area, phone 310-0000 toll-free and follow the instructions.

If you believe that your landlord has raised your rent without proper notice, or more often than the legislation permits, please call Service Alberta’s Consumer Contact Centre at 1-877-427-4088.

We appreciate your taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention.

Visit Service Alberta's website at http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/ for comprehensive registries and consumer information and services."

In summary, if you didn't bother to read the whole letter, it tells me things I already know (eg. that rent can only be increased once a year, that you must have 3 months notice before rent increases (wasn't this already true before their new legislation?), that you must have 1 year's notice if they are turning your apartment into condos). Apparently "addressing challenges today and building for the future" does not mean "addessing the challenges of excessive rent today". I guess I didn't expect anything else from the government in their reply, but I still find it disappointing.

Up and coming

I was away all weekend at an ultimate tournament in Kelowna. I have some neat things to write about, but no time at the moment as I catch up on some work and the start of our ultimate season. Keep checking!

Moving Oma!

Whew! That was a job and a half. I just got back from helping to move my Grandma into her new place. Actually, it has been about a month and a half long affair. My grandparents have lived on a farm east of Edmonton for the last 30 years. When my grandpa passed away last fall, it was decided that my grandma had to leave the farm and move into the city. She doesn't drive at all so you can see the diffficulty with living in the middle of nowhere. A farm also requires quite a bit of work and upkeep and it's a little too much for the family to drive out every week or two to cut the lawn, etc. I mean, it takes a good hour just to get there! So reluctantly my Granny gave up the farm but decided not to find a new place to live right away. Unfortunately this doubled the moving workload but it's the way she wanted it. So she rented a storage locker and we moved everything in there at the end of March. A few weeks later she bought a condo in one of those 50+ buildings. The turn over was really quick, she got possession already a couple weeks ago. So after getting a new washer and dryer moved in, a fancy new paintjob and a bit of cleaning done, we can move her in!

Now the problem comes. Moving all the contents of a large farmhouse into a 1 bedroom + den apartment style condo. Well let me first state that I'm very happy to not be unpacking everything. My grandma doesn't like to get rid of anything. She is the kind of person who will keep the receipt of anything she buys, put a date on it and store it in a box or a drawer. We moved 3 dressers, 3 tables, 13 chairs + 3 stools and a bazillion boxes including one box completely dedicated to German travel books (my Granny is German), to name a few things into her new condo. Well I think she will discover really quickly (if she hasn't already) that everything will not fit into her new place and she'll be selling it at a garage sale soon. The only thing discouraging about this is that I'll probably be called upon in a few weeks to come and help move half the stuff that I moved today back out so she can sell it.

Hey-o, Jay-o

Today, our department hosted Jay Ingram as a speaker for the Career Talk seminar series that I have worked on over the past year. Most of you Canadians should know who Jay Ingram is; currently, co-host of the Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel; previously host of the CBC radio show 'Quirks and Quarks'. He has a number of other accolades that I will not mention, although I do know them from having introduced him today at the start of his talk.
Actually, my dad listened to the 'Quirks and Quarks' radio show on Sunday mornings for many years while I was growing up, and I feel that Jay Ingram's voice is a distinct feature of my childhood. Today, it was a pleasure to meet him in person and hear that voice live.

Anticipating larger than usual interest in this Career Talk, due to Jay's celebrity status, we held the seminar in a large classroom that was nearly filled for the lecture. Jay put on a very informal presentation, sitting in front of the class and chatting to us about his life, career path and the wisdom he has gained through his choices throughout life. No powerpoint presentation today, that's for sure. In fact, some of the best presentations I have seen in the last few years have been those that are lightly dependent on, or completely void of, powerpoint presentations. Perhaps these people are just inherently comfortable with presenting and, even if they had powerpoint presentations, would have given great talks anyway. However, I rather believe that there is something interactive and intimate when you present independent of a visual aid and are capable of keeping the audience captivated based upon your words alone. I hope someday to attain this capacity, but in the meantime I'll stick to my trusty powerpoint presentation.

In any case, the talk was interesting, filled with helpful advice (for example, don't expect to become another Jay Ingram, because there are few careers like that around) and interesting anecdotes from his time as a U of A undergrad (something to do with engineers and manure...). After that, the grad students met with Jay for lunch, where we plied him with all our questions (well, not that many questions, since he talks for a long time when you ask him one question and you only have to prompt him every so often in a new direction).

I could write more regarding the interesting things we talked about in this lunch, especially since, as the organizer, I often step in with my own questions to fill quiet gaps, which allows me to have more direct interaction with this Canadian media icon that some of the other students. In particular, we discussed how we can communicate with the public about science and all the amazing things science has to offer, in a way that doesn't frighten the general public away. I'm particularly interested in my ability to communicate with the public regarding my research, as I've had several experiences over the past years where I struggle to describe what I do in terms that almost anyone can understand. I hope to work on this over the next little while, so I'll let you know how it goes and if I take significant steps forward to get my knowledge out to the public. That's an enigmatic comment, I know, but I'm tired of writing all of this out and it's hard to describe without a lot of details.