Monday, November 28, 2011

Joseph Sivak -- 1940 residence!

Hey, check this out: from the digital Henderson's directories. Grandpa Sivak's first listing in the Edmonton books.

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

available online!

p.s. On the plus side, very exciting development - Asma's and my names up in lights!

(Let me know if anyone wants a layman's summary!)

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Going to see some Badgers

Counting down the days till I get to fly west! Things going downhill here (or maybe just staying the same - life in Guelph is hardly ever on the uphill) and being driven slowly mad by a combination of bad data and medium-bad house situation. The data's from a version of a study I've been trying to get to work all year. It was great at first, and then it all went downhill, and we've been tweaking it since then with no luck at all. I got sort of scooped by a Dutch group over the summer, which means we have to get our version out the door ASAP, meaning no more time to fiddle around with it. My supervisor changed it once again on Thursday, giving me four days to re-program the experiment and run it before I leave Tuesday. I had a look at the data on Sat and it also looks pretty terrible :( So frustrating.

But of necessity I have to leave it all behind on Tuesday, so that is exciting. Looking forward to seeing everyone and very pleased that Barb is planning to come.

Also am getting out of housing situation come January. I've come to realize that we do not all share the same cleaning standards, shall we say. Could write a book on that topic. I am tired of coming home at 10pm after 12 hours in the lab and still having to take out the bins while certain housemates lounge around playing computer games. Bah. Anyway, the new place is right next to work - like a six-min walk to the lab - and the landlady COMES AND CLEANS THE BATHROOMS EVERY WEEKEND. There are a lot of potential downsides (million other people living there, insanely chatty landlady living next door) but that alone made me sign on the dotted line. Although more expensive to get a one-semester lease, it is actually not all that much more than my current place and utilities are included. AND TOILET PAPER. TOILET PAPER IS INCLUDED. Also light bulbs and garbage bags. No more situations of certain housemates "forgetting" to pitch in for necessary supplies!

So yeah, we'll see how January goes. Moving is a big pain, but most of my stuff is actually still in storage (have been camping out for the last few months, more or less) so might be able to do most of it on the bus.

In the meantime, two trips west to look forward to, so could be much worse.

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Nakusp

We went to Nakusp last weekend. We stayed at Canyon Court and visited both hot springs. We decided that Halcyon are better, but because they are slightly cooler, so we didn't feel like we had to get out after an hour.
Woodfire pizza was closed as they were on vacation, but we went to the Italian restaurant-which was good.
We decided that Theresa and Geoff should move there-and prices for real estate are down-so it should work out fine! They can live on the lake and we will come visit!
Mom is coming over to watch Grey Cup and I am cooking supper again-crazy yes?
Did a bit of yardwork and managed to get the laundry in before it rained.
Snow is pretty much all gone, I also got the Christmas lights up.
I finished my class this week, so am off until January. It was a good class.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Take a Look, It's in a Book

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Correction

Movember and Job Interview

Here's my post, that means Sam must be next.
It's been a crazy couple of months around good old Rock City. Around the end of September there was a bit of a group walkout at work. A couple of the guys, worried about how much work there was gonna be in the future at Delta, decided to hire on at a rival company. This wasn't such a big deal, except they were followed by a whole bunch of other guys. Like, over half of the company. This whole thing had me a little stressed for a while, as we had to turn work down due to lack of help, but I have a pretty steady gig so it didn't directly affect me too much. In the middle of all of this I received a bit of an inside tip that Trans-Canada's Rocky office was looking to hire an electrician. After a bit of debate, I decided to throw in a resume (which, incidentally, was the first I've made in almost nine years) and was rewarded a few weeks later with a phone call to invite me to an interview. That interview was last Monday, and I think it went really well. Should find out for sure one way or another next week.
Aside from work stuff, I've been keeping fairly busy in other ways as well. Been playing rec league volleyball again, and entered a men's night curling team for the first time. We get the wheels beat off us every week, but it is definitely a good time. Also it's the only sport I know that has a bar upstairs.
I also decided to start up a group for Movember this year. I grew the Mo last year, but didn't get involved with any fundraising. So this year I figured if I did the work to put the group together, the guys could just join and whatever money we raise is that much more than we would have otherwise. That being said, if anyone would like to donate the link is http://mobros.co/mustardmops. I'm actually fairly impressed how the Mustard Mops are doing, and mine is coming along nicely. Although I can't really bristle it properly.
Thanks to those who have donated already!

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Happy Birthday Anne

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Monday, November 14, 2011

Delightful. Visitor

We had a delightful visitor on the weekend. Jovita came over and helped with chocolates. We had a great time and finished pretty fast, especially considering some centres were being made while we were melting chocolate. Oh yes, Grace and Jude were there too.

It was great to have Grace and Jude there too of course. They came Thursday. Went to the Remembrance Day ceremonies on Fri. I know I say this every year, but I can't get over how many people show up. Standing room only at the community centre.

Went out for supper Sat.night, took Tim and Jovita with us. Afterwards we visited at home for a while, then we old ones went to bed and Grace and Tim went out for their real fun.

Winter has arrived for good. We have some snow and it's pretty cold out today.

I think Tim and Sam should be posting about what's been new with them lately.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Happy Birthday Henry


Hope you had a happy day!!

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

November Saturday and Henry's birthday!

I think I post more on Saturdays than any other day. Happy birthday Henry!
Richard and I went to Remembrance Day ceremonies-there were lots of people there. I, of course, thought of Henry and our nephew Josh, and was thankful that there is no war that we are engaged in right now.
We also raked leaves again, leaf raking in this yard is not a one day event, more like a season event-we do it every week for at least a month-and I think perhaps 6 weeks.
Today I am going to pick up some groceries for supper tonight and tomorrow. Mom is coming over here for supper tomorrow! What!? you say. There is a football game tomorrow and Mom does not get CFL football anymore, so we invited her over to watch! I am making Boeuf Bourguinon.
I also plan to get the last Harry Potter movie to watch tonight-November seems suitable for watching dark movies. Plus watching Harry Potter reminds me of going to Scotland, which we did this month a couple years ago.
I also hope to go to Value Village and buy some winter skirts.
Kris is going to be here early next month. we are going up to Williams Lake to see her Dad. He has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and also with melanoma, so she is coming here to visit him, and I am coming along to help support her. I hope his treatment goes well-he will be having chemotherapy-1st one in Kamloops, and then the rest can be done in Williams Lake.
I have one last assignment for my class on embodiment-which is basically recognizing that we can't separate our minds from our bodies when caring for people. Our presentation is on people who are on advanced life support systems, like respirators, and focusing on people who are considered 'brain dead'-are they embodied or not? I think it will be good!
As I was sitting on the couch, I heard this noise outside-looked out and there is this squirrel, climbing across the side of our house, using the front window, with a walnut in his or her mouth! Made it to the tree and went about the rest of squirrel business. It has done this a few times now-nature!

Monday, November 07, 2011

It has begun.

I have started the process of bathroom renovation. They've torn out the walls, and tomorrow shower and new taps will be installed. Rest of the week: insulation, drywall, rebuilding of walls, and tiling. They might be able to install new pipes for kitchen so my drinking water isn't quite as dirty coming in. My friend's two uncles are doing the job - hooray for uncles!

Tile is a plain white 8x10" with a nice blue-grey-glass mosaic stripe going around the top. I had these 3x6" subway tiles but one of the uncles said "nope. too many grout lines," and sent me back to the store to get something different. This makes me feel somehow like I have Dad doing the renos. With less swearing, though.

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Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Hopping On The Bandwagon

Well, since everyone is posting now, I guess I will as well. October was a very busy month. Very busy. I think I only got about four full days off for the whole month. And I worked a lot of long days, where I was working all day, and then in meetings in the evening. I don't mind too much though, because there was some interesting stuff.

I was the keynote speaker at one of our diocesan mission conferences. I talked about the importance of seeking God interculturally - the idea was that our cultural assumptions can limit how we think about God. I used the traffic in Sri Lanka as a metaphor. Then we looked at pictures of Jesus - a black Jesus, an Asian Jesus, a Sri Lankan Jesus, a historically accurate picture of a Judean male from the first century, and talked about how these different images shaped our ideas of God.

Halloween was quiet. Jeff and Kirsten came over, and we made supper, carved jack o'lanterns, and watched movies, waiting for trick or treaters. Only two came, so with great reluctance we ate the candy ourselves. After they left I was on duty in the Church. Last year there was significant damage in the graveyard at Halloween, thanks to vandals, so Peter wanted someone there all night. He stayed till 11:30, then I stayed till 5 am. A parishioner came by and sat with me til around 2, and then I was on my own. I sat in the church reading a book, and did periodic sweeps of the graveyard. No vandals, although one woman had decorated her daughter's grave with a jack o lantern, which was sort of creepy at 1 am.

Probably as a result of staying up all night in a draughty church, I am now sick. I've got a sore throat and stuffy nose. I spent today drinking lemon ginger tea. It is very difficult to be creative when your head is full of cotton.

I'm finalizing all my things for the ordination! November 30, 4:30 pm, by the way. I've chosen my lay presenters - my buddy Jeff, who some of you met, and Auntie Barb, who is able to make it down. I was really glad that Auntie Barb could come. It turns out that some old friends of hers from Yellowknife are my parishioners!

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I'm only posting because I don't want to start my hours of patient research, not because of being pressured.

I started clinical this week. Once again I am on a medicine unit, so it shouldn't be too much different from last year, except I can do IV meds now. I was really hoping to get surgery this year, but it's a lottery and I did not. I am guaranteed to be on surgery next year though. Today was my first day (actually evening) on the unit, so it was just 4 hours of being buddied with an RN, and the rest was getting information from the chart of my assigned patient. Now I have to research everything I found about the patient so I am ready to take over her care tomorrow.

Since I have 6 week terms and I finished my final exams on Weds last week, I had a couple extra days off. I went to Rocky for a couple days, and it was nice to just lay around on Mom and Dad's couch and eat their food. Then on Saturday I went to Calgary for Halloween. I also went to my friend Scott's art school, and got to go in his glass studio, which was a lot of fun. Then me and Jovita went for Ikea meatballs and then got all dressed up to go out. I was a deranged inmate, Jovita was Miss Piggy. We met up with some other girls from Rocky too, and it was nice to see them.

Fine, I will

But the rest of you better find something to say!
I am feeling better this week after my somewhat crappy week last week. Work was kind of stressful, nothing that could be helped from my end, and nothing that could be avoided really, but I have found that when these types of things happen, that it takes me some time to process, and when I am processing/dealing with it, I am crabby and out of sorts. When Jim was here, he asked one day at supper, 'How was your day?' "fine" I said, "but usually I say, good, I think that this thing got to me last week" "Yes" said Richard and Mom, "she usually says great, she really likes her work"
But, happily I worked through it and am back to my cheerful self and enjoying it again.
We are going to Dominican Republic in jan! for a week! Yay for sun in January.
mom has gone to visit her friend Noreen in White Rock-she left today and returns on Saturday. Clem will be veeerrryyy angry about this.
Richard is making butter chicken for supper-yum.
The maple trees are all yellow right now and look quite spectacular-looking out towards our deck, across the street, the view is all amber yellow.
Doesn't anyone have anything to say?