Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Is it hooky if the supervisors organized it?

Here was the lab outing to Gatineau Park last Wednesday:

My new quote to live by

In my Saturday morning skating classes, I give my 4 year old group stickers at the end of every class as a reward for working hard and as something to look forward to. One little boy is particularly fond of "sticker time". This week, I had the group working on skating backwards. He stops suddenly and looks at me:

"I don't feel like doing that. Can't you just give me a sticker instead?"

That is my new line to live by. Just think of its uses with:

- Lab equipment maintenance
- Dealings with thesis committee
- Being asked to grade papers
- Personal trainers who think you should do push ups
...

Really, the possibilities are just endless.

Still Alive!

My mom phoned last week concerned that my blog had not been updated in awhile. It being a week later and there are still no new entries in my blog, I figured I should do something, even if just to convince my family that I am still alive and breathing. I also have pictures to upload (ooohhh...).

So, it's been busy on the MSc front. I'm counting down the number of ELISA kits I have left to run (1 TNF, 1 insulin, 1 total adiponectin, 1 HMW adiponectin... unless we also decide to run IL-1beta which I'm starting to wonder about and then I need to do 2 of those too). All that to say, I am approaching where I will have all my numbers and can start my stats. I'm also driving myself a little batty with my decision to redo my review of literature chapter (it's a long process). My evenings have largely consisted of writing until I'm ready to drop and then curling up in bed with a novel (hence why my 50 books list keeps growing).

I made 2 new squares for my blanket: both in what I was hoping were the right color scheme for the project spectrum fire theme. They may be a little too pink for that but it's what I have and I want to use yarn that I already have for the blanket (though there may be a yarn swap coming up and seeing as a lot of people seem keen to get their "icky acrylic stuff" off their hands, I may be able to score some more bits for the blanket. Have not done much more knitting besides taking the snow beast out to SnB this week for a bit.




Besides that, what with it being winter and all (minus 16 celcius), I've suddenly got little brown ants in my appartment (go figure). At least all my food has already been bug-proofed. I've just had to move Casey's bowl (I sprinkled baby powder around it too, based on something I"d read online - may have helped: her food has been ant-free since I did that) and borax ant traps are my new favorite thing in the whole wide world.

I managed a quick trip to Winterlude last weekend and got some photos of the ice sculptures. I wanted to try photograph them lit up at night but my batteries died before it got dark enough (plus, it was cold...). I've got photos on my little Kodak from the lab snowshoe outing last week but they will have to wait.

Obsessing over undergrad eating habits

My main job this semester is TAing a nutrition class. The main assignment for that class is a very detailed food diary assessment. I've had all sorts of interesting questions to field (my current favorite is "I ate an orange and forgot to weigh it. What do I do?????" - it was so tempting to tell the student to restart her diary the next day but I was kind and explained that she ate the evidence and could therefore make up a reasonable weight for her orange). I am currently grading the diaries. It really is like going through someone's diary. I have been so tempted to write comments like "You had HOW MANY Coors Lights?" and "No, my dear, you can not live off of nothing but Timbits" or, alternately "Is that all you ate??? That's like half your daily recommended calorie intake." I have to keep reminding myself that it is not my job. I am an impartial marker, not a physician in this situation.

February's square

For the block a month crochet-along that I'm doing, February has a heart theme. I really wasn't big on the hearts but want to crochet the same pattern as everyone else so tried to find a color scheme that would be less Valentine-ish without being garish.