Thursday, September 29, 2011

Sunset from our hotel

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Crab

I was home for two days, ill, which has done nothing good for my disposition. I think I sent 2 curt emails off today at work and felt owly with different things. I snapped at a doctor as I was filling in for the ECT nurse. Which I don't mind doing, but it is a little nervewracking when there are lots of patients and I am not expecting it...However i don't want to be a person who when confronted with a change in plans, says, 'I can't manage that'
I don't think season change is good for my mood either.
Sun, I miss you already.
So I'm drinking a vodka grapefruit drink to lighten my mood. Sebastian is lightly snoring beside me, which does make me slightly more cheerful.
I also came home after a board meeting (where I disagreed with different things-though cheerfully enough) and barked at Richard. Who did not deserve it.
Bad mood Lisa.
What ever this bug is has led to me not sleeping great-this is A Bad Thing.
Richard just drank the rest of my Woody's, but gave me a beer in it's place. Sebastian is kneading me and purring.
Really, when I think about my life, what do I have to complain about?
Though sometimes it is good to be crabby to realize that being happy is better.

Now we are really on the Road

First stop Cannon Beach. The picture above is the soup I had at lunch, in Forks, Washington, cabbage and kielbasa, yummm.

I had a really good visit with Mom and the Wensinks. the weather was very warm, and Mom as usual did a great job on the meals. Lisa and I went to the wool shop, so I could see it, and I got some wool to make a hat, red and white, very patriotic. I agree with T, the Helms Inn is a great place to stay in Victoria. A good option for the 2nd ordination. We went out for supper on Monday night, Will's friends Jeff and Kirsten came along too, so we had a good visit with them. There was also live music at the restaurant, too much fun.

The hotel in Cannon Beach is great too. Right on the beach, we can hear the ocean and it is very peaceful. Cannon beach is not that big, but it took awhile to find the hotel, it is on a street that is tucked away. The drive from Port Angeles here was good, some windy roads and beautiful scenery, just out of Port Angeles we went around this huge lake called Crescent Lake, really spectacular. There was also a lot of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks. We did see a Weyerhaeuser mill, and knew we were getting back to civilization when we spotted a Starbucks.

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Monday, September 26, 2011

Legs 1 and 2


Still do not feel like I am on holidays. Perhaps because we have been rushing up to this point. The drive to Kelowna was uneventful and beautiful with the fall colours all around us (on the Alberta side). We shocked ourselves by stopping at the Spiral Tunnels, but zoomed by the Enchanted Forest. The visit in Kelowna was short but nice: we ate, slept, ate again and left. Drive to the ferry was fine although a little tense as we started looking for the ferry terminal. Didn't make the sailing we had been aiming for but the later one was fine and got us to Victoria in time to see Will before Evensong. Lisa is right, his place is cute and surprisingly roomy. Went to Evensong and afterwards met some of Will's parishioners who seem to love him. A couple of elderly ladies are keeping an eye on him, it appears.
Went for a bite to eat, then checked into the hotel. I recommend the Helm's Inn, it is in a great location, reasonably priced and has been recently refurbished. Will took us on a tour of the cathedral after breakfast. Although it is his day off he has a meeting this afternoon so we will just poke around town here in the rain. We catch the ferry to Port Angles tomorrow morning.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

See you (some of you) in Nov!

Booked a flight to Will's ordination thingy. I'll be in Victoria the day before and fly to Edmonton for the weekend to see Steph and Rem (they'll be away for Christmas). Are the Kelowna people coming down by any chance? Would be great to see you

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Horizontal Violence

AKA nurses eating their young.
A good episode on White Coat, Black Art on nurse bullying for all those nurses out there!
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Radio/1447825254/ID=2132237462

Gymnastics

I started my adult gymnastics class. 10 weeks. I go with 3 other women from work, and on the first day we skipped rope; tried handstands; did 60 pushups, situps and squats; walked on the beam; and tumbled. (somersaults!). My arms were in such pain over the next two days I could barely move them, but I felt better today and rode my bike downtown, even. My goals are to attend all 10 classes (except for one week I'm out of town) and to develop more upper body strength.

I'm going to Chicago again! Another conference. Going to stay one day on either end to have some fun times there. And going to Winnipeg to see Kirsten & Isaac and other Wurmanns in a week or two.

Good meeting with my PhD supervisor and I think that we have a reasonable plan for me to keep pushing forward.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Ready to Go

I got my new passport in the mail yesterday, so I am ready to head to the US with T&G. I cannot wait, only 3 work days left. I am flying to Kelowna on Thursday so I can have a bit of a visit with Mom and the Wensinks. T&G will drive to Kelowna and stay over night then off to Victoria and a visit with Reverend Will.
I have switched some stuff at work around so I can go the Victoria and see Will get ordained. Looking forward to that as well.
There has a been a lot of turnover at work, two people are retiring at the end of the month. 2 other people have quit to go work at other places. Seems like every other month we get a note from Marlene telling us someone else is leaving.
Not a lot new with me, I had lunch with Vicky yesterday and heard about their cross Canada trip. it sounded like a lot of fun. I was looking around the restaurant and who do I see but Todd. I am always surprised when I see someone I know when I am out and about.

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Helena the Badger's Big Promotion

Helena and I are currently at a conference in Boston (Society for Psychophysiological Research! Fun to say) and she just got an email saying the faculty have unanimously voted her into a full faculty position at Yale. As she is an honorary badger, I thought I should let you all know :)

In the meantime, I have 2.5 thesis chapters written and counting, and have started applying for postdoc positions... it usually takes a while, but keep your fingers crossed anyway. And Will, maybe you could put in a good word for me upstairs?!

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Slovakia! [Edited]

I saw this on CBC.ca today, and have now inserted the proper link:

Slovakia learning what it takes to be part of European community - World - CBC News

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Tuesday, September 06, 2011

November 30

I found out from the bishop tonight that (God willing) I'll be ordained a priest on November 30! It'll be in Victoria, at the Cathedral, downtown. 4:30 pm, apparently. It'll be a big party - me and my buddy Ernest being ordained priests, and two others being ordained as deacons.

I wasn't really expecting it this soon - but the bishop does what he decides is best! Everyone is invited, of course. November 30 is St. Andrew's day (patron saint of Scotland) if that sways anyone into coming!

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Things have been rearranged at work a bit, and I used the opportunity to suggest that I don't really need to be there on Tuesday mornings, so this is my first Tues a.m. off! Not quite Jude's three-day work week but I will take what I can get.

It is feeling like summer. Late August felt like fall. What the heck. The long weekend was perfect in many ways, starting with the weather. Also Sam, Grace and Jude were all here, the first we have seen Sam since his bike trip, so we got updated on that. Grace was camping for a couple of days but was around for visiting too. Geoff and Jude got looking at maps and accommodation for our road trip. Geoff went to the farmers' market and brought home 30 lbs of cucumbers so I made pickles on Saturday. We went to the city yesterday with the kids so we could pick up a couple of things (a mattress!) that wouldn't fit in Grace's new place. She had someone arranged to take them but the person backed out at the last minute. Tim says he will take the mattress so that worked out OK.

Still beautiful out so I'm going to go dig compost before work.

Oh, and Geoff has been working on the bathroom reno, it's going to look great.

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Monday, September 05, 2011

Also

in addition to last post on tenant.
he finally got his act together and doing final inspection at 450, as new tenant moving in at 500.
he had some sort of weird dreadlock extensions(?). They were not his hair, as evidenced by the short bangs you could see near his forehead, sort of underneath the dreadlocks. Richard had told me about them earlier, but seeing them truly was believing them.

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Saturday, September 03, 2011

Letter from a concerned Podmate

Below is a letter sent by my podmate Polly. She was commenting on the ill treatment of me at the hands of Allison.

Hello Allison,
>
> I am writing to you as a concerned pod mate of your wonderful sister Judith.
> I was concerned about your treatment of Judith this past weekend and would
> advise that this type of behavior must stop immediately. Judith is only
> here Monday to Wednesday which I am still adjusting to and don't wish for
> those days to be jeopardized in any way. Please adjust your attitude by
> treating her with the respect she deserves and consideration of her well
> being in the future. I look forward to hearing of a change in your behavior
> for all future visits with my pod mate. Thank you for your attention to
> this serious matter.
>
> Sincerely,
> Pod Mate Polly

And response from Allison

Dear Ms. Pod Mate:

Thank you for your input. However, Judith is sometimes a Very Bad
Sister, and therefore, needs some wrangling. In fact, it was the other
siblings who asked me to take her behaviour in hand. I suspect you are
seeing the beneficial results of my corrective behaviour methods in
the Great Goodness with which Judith is behaving at work.

Your feedback is always important to the Sivaks. Please keep us posted
on Judith.

Best regards,

Allison Sivak, esq.

I would like to know who asked Allison to "wrangle" me, or is this just a figment of her overactive imagination. I feel I have been nothing but a kind and loving sister.

Friday, September 02, 2011

September Already






I find it amazing how quickly time goes by, 8 months of the year gone. It feels like fall here, highs the last few days have been mid teens, with a cool breeze. No 30+ for us.

We have 3 new people at work, two started this week and one last week. Two of them are recent grads, one from U of A with a business degree (he doesn't know Sam, I checked) and the second just received his MBA from U of A. I did a couple of training sessions for them, one on the administrative stuff (we have 5 different places to report time, all are required) and one on the work process. When I was asked if I would do it, I said yes, because that way I can make sure they do things as I like it. I like having new young people at work, it is nice to see the enthusiasm. I also think if we hire them when they are young they won't know what the working world is all about and think that IBM is normal.

I was hoping to see Nancy last week but it ended up not working out. She was going to come back in a couple of weeks, because she has a job on either a TV show or movie for APTN. They were ahead of schedule so wanted her to shoot her scenes last week. Since I just saw her in Van in May I don't feel too bad about missing her.

I have a new project, I am scanning all my old photos. I started with 1973/74 and it brings all kinds of memories back. Lots of pictures of Lisa and Allison, what a pair of cuties. Mom and Dad look so young, both with dark hair, and in Dad's case a fair amount of hair. The rest of us look mostly the same, although some of us have darker hair too, and not so many laugh lines as we have now.

I finally got my passport stuff done. I tried to just do a renewal, but because it got wet when I had the flood in my apartment, no go. So the long form and a stat dec to say how it got damaged. It is to be mailed out on September 16, so just in time for the great road trip. I always have good intentions of getting things done early, but generally, it ends up being last minute.

I am still loving my part time, the three days seem to fly by, and I find I can stand anything for 3 days.

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