just a pic for my profile

A Little Taste of Perfection (if I could taste anything with my nose this stuffed up)

I wrote a post initially a few days ago but my cranky old computer refused to publish it, pissing me off to no end. Can't wait to get a new one.

Sat. Oct. 21st

Not much sleep going on this morning, that's for sure - biochem midterm on a saturday morning, certainly gross, but I came away with 100%, seriously, so that didn't suck so much. Sunday morning, up early again for city league volleyball, loving our team, very balanced all around and we have a blast even when we're not playing spectacularly, which normally I would get irritated about.

Had an interestingly genial yet terse conversation with Dr. Langner, oh, sorry "Jerry" as he insisted we call him, lol about the small group ensembles (and how they can in NO way be associated with Greystone Singers). It's not like I'm surprised by any of this, I know the drill, but everyone in music gets so bloody territorial - shouldn't choristers have input into what they're singing (and I'm talking more than just 1 piece a year)? We're the ones that do all the work and give up our time. I did take note about doing things right the first time...in many ways you don't have multiple chances to mess with people's level of commitment.

Betsy surprised me with some a very interesting revelation as well - I'm just glad to hear she's surviving, having new experiences, and the important stuff will sort itself out. Despite my exhaustion, and the consequent onset of a bad head cold Monday morning, Sunday's highlight was a truly enjoyable and warm call from Steve in Britannica, much better than the early morning/"you have two minutes on your phonecard" call from a week or so before. Big happy birthday to him and I got to return the favour he'd done for my birthday back in May (yay chipmunks!). Too bad Anna won't be in England when I will be during spring break, she wrote back saying durned the luck, she's leaving at the end of January. Miss you MIghty Mouse!

I keep meaning to get this decrepit old digicam working and take some shots of the UofSask campus while it's still relatively picturesque (eg. before the snow and lack of leaves reduce it to a bleak greystone quarry). Also should get some shots of the house to send to mom, sisters (although I think dad took some when he was here initially). This cold definitely came at a bad time, just as I was making a strong push in the gym - I'm relegated to yoga for the time being (stretchy Stew). This whole E. coli scare with spinach is starting to get on my nerves, I miss my salads!

Psych quiz on Chapters 4, 5.....and 3(?) today - luckily I remembered most of that stuff and came through pretty well, I'm quite surprised how badly the class is doing as a whole - still wish it were on an ABC curve like a UofA cause I'd be sitting at an A+++, muahah. Pharm 216 is going to be a huge pain. Note to self, don't leave Lab2 until Sunday night/Monday morning!!!

Hope mom, dad and Grandpa had an amazing time at Dalhousie. I should call em...

lol not my best prose (a hodgepodge of various tangents to be sure) but it'll have to do for the moment!

Stew

NO......Ping-Pong.....BAAAAAAALLLLSSS?? AARRRRGGHHH!!!

To paraphrase Family Guy's Lois (NO PAPER TOWELS?)Though I've been beset by woe, hurdles and hoops alike today I still have that warm self-satisfied feeling of a productive day (surpringly rare considering how busy I always am), so that makes up for all of the follies.

Man, applying for a passport is a true pain in the arse! I finished everything I could on the application without phoning up people I've known for decades, then abssentmindedly splurged over the denoted 'blue box' with my final signature....so I have to start from scratch - curse you Gov't of Canuckistan! I also discovered that BoM has been ripping me off to the tune of ~$20 a month - I've so had it with them. I shan't bore you with the details - I should be able to reclaim my funds come Monday - but honestly what is the bloody point of dealing with tellers who never do their job? Same thing I ran into last summer with the bounced cheque fiasco which very nearly cost me my trip to Canada Games (caught the bus as it was leaving the parking lot!)

The final blow was our now epic search for replacement ping-pong balls after all of ours got quashed during some marathon play Thanksgiving weekend. I'd been all the way up and down 8th St. looking for some (encountering about 6 golf shops along the way) with no success. So I do the logical thing and go to the source, SportChek. Guess who's out of ping-pong balls?? How inept can they get? Bah!

On the bright side, our first acapella practice is tomorrow and I haven't fared too badly in assembling a decent sized squad of crooners. I still have a lot of transcribing to do tonight - erk. But in a supreme bit of fortuitousness, I made contact with a lovely girl named Laura Kishimoto from Toronto who very kindly gave me a fully transcribed rendition of Weary in Well-Doing - wooot! Delicious Rajatunage.

Pharm 201 Lab and midterm both on Monday, better get crackin'

Stew

Huzzah for Cheesy Potatoes!

Wow it's been awhile. Thanks to Steve for rightly nagging me to get back on the horse and update this sucker ;)

Thanksgiving is a time for coming together...and as such I was in a very social mood, though my compadres only came through about half way. I spent Friday in the company of hot gay twins...watching movies and playing video games hehe. Jesse and James are both highly enjoyable company and it was nice to meet some of their friends as well. Saturday it poured, wiping out my plans of tennis and frisbee practice - which we're in need of befor Nationals in Ottawa this coming week.

I was, however, surprised and delighted to be invited to TG dinner with some fellow pharmacy 1st years at Alia's. Poor Alia :D she got instantly drunk and was a bit zoned the rest of the night - fortunately she'd already done a great job with her MASSIVE turkey, and between me dicing it up, managing to formulate emergency gravy, and our inspired 'infusion' cooking of one guest's tasty sour cheddar cheese dip into the mashed potatoes, we were set for an excellent meal. I didn't expect to take home half of it though! Alia lives with 5 other roommates and shares one fridge between them, so got a goodie bag in the form of half of two pies and two tupperware container of cheesytatoes/stuffing and turkey, respectively.

Once I got home, I got another nice surprise, a long phone call from my sister Betsy in Vancouver. We've all been worried about her adjusting in her first year out of Fort Smith, but she sounded happier than I've heard her in awhile. Ella's coordinating a spa day for mom when she goes to Dalhousie to receive her Master's degree.

On the school front, I should be caught up on notes by the end of this week. The sad thing is I really didn't have to worry about missing about a week of class because we got absolutely NOwhere. I could teach this biochem course..which of course I will be to all the pharm girls who haven't taken it yet. Even the big 5 credit course Pharm 201 is kind of a joke. Oh well, as long as that translates into 95's for Stew on midterms next week I've no complaints, other than feeling like it's a padded degree. I expected Pharmacy to be more of a difficult haul.

Thinking about to spring break - I had to option of going to Austria and the Czech Republic with Greystone Singers, to the tune of $2500 :O So we can see why I'm now going with Plan B, the less expensive and probably 80 times more fun trip to England/Europe quickie tour. If things work not, not only would I get to hang with Steve but visit and possibly stay with some Pearson friends I haven't seen in 5 years. Flights are in teh neighbourhood of $950 between Saskatoon and London (which I realize is about 2 hours drive from Conventry, donde esta Steve, but if we're hitting Europe anyway it saves $600 buck on airfare to Birmingham. Anyway, gotta start work on passport! Ella went to Europe this May so I can pump her for advice.

Hrm, well I did have plans to play games tonight, but apparently my buddies aren't coming, so it's back to washing dishes. Sans minimum wage - boo. Additionally, trying to find a phone card that doesn't claim to give me 14X the minutes to England it actually does *rolls eyes*
Nighty-O - Stew