-After several days of temperatures just above freezing we have moved just a little below into temperatures just below freezing. Not surprisingly, the rain of a few days ago has now turned into something approximating flurries. My understanding of the forecast is that we should be having some combination of these to types of weather tomorrow.
-A few days ago we had a family photo session. My father wanted the photos to be taken as we had not had proper family photos take for some time and as the family had grown by one (Rebecca) since the last time we had such photos taken. Though I was a little skeptical at first, my father's decision to have the photos taken in a board room at MUN was likely a good one (I will be a little more certain once we get the photos back from the photographer). Amazingly we were able to move through about 10 different personnel configurations in much less than an hour (the whole process, which involved some set up and two locations took just over an hour).
-The night before, to celebrate Kirsten's birthday, our family, along with some family friends, went bowling. A fringe benefit of going when we did was that we were able to wear our new matching bowling shirts. While we looked pretty amazing, the shirts that Neil and I were wearing were a little too tight (which threw off our second game).
On a personal note, I think I scored a personal best with 195 in the first game.
-I think that there were a few more things that at various points during the past few days I was meaning to write about that I have now forgotten. While a few may have been moderately interesting, I think that for the most part they don't really merit mention, so I guess you might say that I am doing you one last favour for 2009.
1 to 2 dozen nouns 3-6 handfuls verbs 3 adjectives 14 cups of prepositions articles to taste
Place the prepositions in a pot on the stove and set the heat to medium. While the prepositions are warming rub each now with a verb, switching to a new verb once the old one wears out (about every four nouns). Place the verb coated nouns in a bowl. Juice the adjectives over the verb coated nouns and then stir. Add articles to taste. Once the prepositions have reached a boil begin to add the noun mix, lower the heat, and allow the combination to simmer. After 1 to 2 hours remove the pot from the burner and allow to chill. Once chilled, the mixture can be poured into an essay mould. Each batch will enough essay content for about four term papers. Typically, a quadruple batch is sufficient for most masters thesis moulds. No matter which mould size is being used at least one night is required for the mixture to properly set. Garnish with punctuation if desired.
Chef's tips: 1) Modal verbs add a nice piquancy that cannot be replicated by any other type of verb. 2) If making enough for a Ph.D. thesis be sure to add a few extra adjectives and nouns to each batch.
-The relatively sub-par weather seems to keep on going. We have now had temperatures around zero and a few flurries most days since I have been home. Fortunately, the rainy spells have been relatively brief, or at least periods of time when I have not had to leave the house.
-We are presently still in the midst of our Christmas celebrations. On Christmas morning we examined the contents of our stockings, had breakfast, and, eventually, had dinner. While we opened a few gifts after dinner, we left quite a few under the tree. Both yesterday and today we have also opened a few gifts. I imagine that maybe by the 29th or 30th we might have finished the gift opening process.
It should be noted that as Kirsten's birthday falls in the midst of this date range things will likely slow down a little (though as far as Kirsten is concerned they will pick up).
-So far I have opened quite a number of matching shirts, maybe more than I have ever received before. My father, brother, and I all received Newfoundland beer shirts; I got a Dominion Ale shirt, Neil got an India Beer shirt, and my father got a Jockey Club shirt. All of us received matching bowling shirts from my uncle. And then Neil, my uncle, and I received matching flannel shirts. I imagine that this will be it for the matching shirts, though I could be mistaken.
-My understanding is that the aforementioned Jockey Club will soon be, or has been, discontinued.
Here at Montifax we care about our readers (seeing as you are a select group with refined tastes). To try to help encourage your enjoyment of the holidays, or to help you get primed up for Christmastime celebrations we have uploaded the following video. Watching this should quickly put you in the right mood to tackle any holiday challenge, no matter how difficult or family-laden.
-The most noticeable change in the weather between yesterday and today is that it is now a few degrees colder and we have had a few periods of flurries. The forecast is suggesting that we might have a little more of the same, though I am glad to see that they are predicting flurries both tonight and tomorrow.
-Earlier this evening we conducted our annual Christmas Eve gift exchange (each of us opens one gift). Kirsten gave me a pair of pajama pants that she made a few days ago. They are really quite impressive (and even include drawstring and elastic). Kirsten opened the Monty Python Fluxx game that I gave her, allowing us to have something to do for a portion of the evening.
-My Uncle and I made a brief trip to the airport this evening to see if we could track down his missing suitcase. Much to our surprise there was almost no one at the airport, and certainly not anyone who was in a position to help us with our problem.
-For dinner tonight we had a very tasty leg of lamb, along with a few other side dishes. One of my favourite of the other dishes was one of the loaves of bread that we baked yesterday.
-It seems that I will have to get up a little on the early side tomorrow morning to participate in the various Christmas festivities that have been planned. Hopefully things will slow down enough in the afternoon that I will be able to take a nap for at least an hour or two.
-A few days ago I started reading a book called Freakonomics. While I have found several sections of the book to be rather thought-provoking and informative, I feel that a few other sections are a little thin (though they are always entertaining). If I get a chance I may try to provide a more in-depth critique of the work once I finish reading it (which shouldn't take me too much longer).
-The party I attended last night was really great. Not only did I get a chance to see a few people I hadn't seen in over a year, I was also able to meet a few new people. Apparently Neil liked the party so much that he fell asleep there (only to wake up to take a cab home at 5:00 AM).
It has recently come to my attention that Montifax needs to come out against Zeno's paradox regarding Achilles and the Tortoise. Pure bunk, or at least something approaching pure bunk. In case you are concerned about the validity of this position there is really no need to worry, I spent a solid 15 minutes talking about it this morning. I am pretty sure that we have hashed everything out and reached the safe conclusion that it is bunk.
-It seems that for the past few days it has been hovering around, or just above, zero celsius. One of the most noticeable results is that much of the snow that was on the ground when we arrived has now melted and been replaced with greenish grass. The unpleasant side of this is that it has been quite grey and overcast since we returned home. There has certainly not been a day that I would consider calling nice.
-My uncle flew in from Newark last night. Unfortunately, his flight was delayed by about three hours and one of his bags lost in transit. Sadly it seems that this is pretty standard for this airline on this flight. My father said that he recently read that this particular flight had a 0 out of 5 rating in terms of being on time.
The only good news is that given my Uncle's familiarity with the flight he was able to pack so that his carry-on bag had many of his essentials.
-It seems that Neil, Rebecca, and I will be going to a Christmas party/Housewarming at a childhood friend's new house. Other parties thrown by this friend and his wife have tended to be quite incredible. Unfortunately, I feel a little out of the partying mood, so I am looking forward to attending less than I should be.
-My sister and Uncle, with a little help from me, placed the Christmas tree in the Christmas tree stand. As of right now it is still undecorated. I presume that decorating won't happen until tomorrow afternoon, though it is possible that some could take place in the morning.
-I should probably get going. There are a few things I should attend to before I head out to the aforementioned party.
A few days ago I realized that we have been playing Settlers of Catan for almost seven years. For the most part, we have been playing relatively by the book games (though with a few minor variants). Finally, last night, we really mixed things up, at least in terms of board layout.
Last night Peter came over for dinner and to play a few games of Settlers. As all of us (including Rebecca) were here along with Peter it meant that we had 7 potential Settlers players. For the first game the problem was solved by my mother bowing out (she had something she needed to do).
By the time we were ready to play the second game she had returned. We decided to solve our problem by adding a few hexes and making a modified, larger board. The board we ended up with can be seen here.
As those of you who are familiar with Settlers can see, we added a few gold hexes to the middle, as well as a few ocean and desert hexes. The idea was to make something somewhat tempting, but that would require a relatively substantial commitment to reach.
Not surprisingly, the board wasn't a particular success. The main portion of the island, the area that ringed the gold, desert, and ocean hexes, was a little too thin to be fun.
For the third game of the night, a five player game, we decided to go with a triangle shaped board with a desert in the centre and gold at the corners. Peter, though he regretted it immediately, suggested that we place a desert in the middle (it turned into a mountain).
For the most part, I think that this shape was generally considered acceptable. It was certainly better than our first modified board of the night.
The other modification was that we played with last night was the "Super-Friendly Robber" rule, a modification of the "Friendly Robber" rule. In this instance the robber doubles production on hex on which it is located. Furthermore, when the robber is removed from a hex those with cities or settlements adjacent to the hex get a card of their choosing (as compensation for the loss of the robber). The goal of this rule modification is to up production, and the speed of the game. Though I am not sure that this was well received universally, I do think that it is a generally good rule modification that improves game play. For those of you that are curious, sevens still mean discarding half of your if you have more than seven. My recollection is that we decided that the person who rolled the seven would not get to steal from another player.
Now that we have broken a few of our own traditions I think we might be a little more inclined to mess with the board and rules during the rest of our visit home (and then a little more once we return to Halifax).
A few days ago my mother asked me if I might be interested in helping her do some of the Christmas baking this year. As I generally enjoy baking I agreed to assist with the process, which ended up happening today.
Though as of last night I knew that things would be taking place today, only this morning at about 10:30 did I learn that they would be starting at 10:30. I had assumed that we would have a civilized post-noon start, as I recall we have had in recent years.
Though I was rather abruptly awoken I quickly got down to work and started mixing some of the flour into the previously prepared buttermilk base. As it turns out, part way through the process we realized that we would not be able to fit all 11 batches (which is how many batches my mother decided to make) in a single mixing bowl, so we poured about half of the dough in another bowl.
At this stage, which was probably at about 11:00 AM, I thought that it might be fun to take a time-lapse video of the rest of the process. While not everything was captured, I think that this video very fairly represents the approximately 8 hours that we spent baking and decorating the bread.
[Embedded Video]
In case you are curious, part way through the process, while the bread was rising, I made a batch of rum balls. Near the end, once most of the baking had been completed, my father engaged in a little gift wrapping.
Some of our more regular readers may be observant enough to notice that there have been a few more posts than typical this evening. I guess that this might be explained by my far-fetched hope that we might reach 365 posts on Montifax this year. For this to happen, I need to make 26 posts (including this one) between now and December 31. This would mean a few more posts a day than has been common Montifax practice since the blog-off in February.
Until just a few months ago we were doing quite well as far as this unstated goal was concerned. Actually, I think that until about four months ago we were actually ahead of where we needed to be if we wanted an average of one a day.
For better or worse, school seems to have interfered with my computer use patterns. One noticeable downward trend has been in terms of the time I have spent blogging (on the other hand, my time spent downloading PDF versions of journal articles has really gone way up).
I guess this isn't surprising considering the thousands of pages of reading I had to do this term, or the 100 pages of writing (which seems low, though this is really quite close to how much I had to submit this semester) that I had to hand in.
Anyway, now that I have close to 50% of my Christmas shopping in the bag I should be able to devote a little more time to the noble pursuit of blogging (it is particularly noble in my case as I am doing it for the blogosphere rather than the mass readership).
The good news is that as of right now I only have 25 more posts to go.
A few weeks ago Peter and I were taking a stroll through the local grocery store, basically just checking things out not really doing a proper shop. Eventually we found a discount refrigerated food section, something I had never seen in that store before. After poking around this section for a few minutes we happened upon a strange can with a 50% off sticker obscuring most of the label. After a few more minutes we figured out that what we were holding claimed to be pancake or waffle batter in a can. All one needed to do to have organic pancakes or waffles was squirt this stuff out onto the appropriate cooking surface and let it cook. Immediately I was drawn to this product because of its relative absurdity. Really, who could possibly be too lazy to prepare pancake batter but not lazy enough to cook pancake batter?
After letting this can kick around the fridge for a few weeks Neil finally talked me into preparing a few of these pancakes before we left Halifax for the Holidays. As you can see, they do end up kind of looking like pancakes.
[Embedded Video]
As you might have guessed, these pancakes were really not very good as far as pancakes go. Though with enough syrup and/or butter I am sure that I could have maybe finished one or two.
I meant to post this some number of months ago, around the time we actually acquired the port sippers. Anyway, I think it is likely just as good now as it would have been four months ago.
-We are in the midst of a period of rather nasty weather in St. John's. For the past few days things have been generally wet and overcast, with intermittent periods of snow, just to mix things up a little. Unfortunately, it does not look as though things are really going to get much better in the immediate future.
-Last night, with my friend Greg, I made my triumphant return to George Street. We started things off at Trapper John's, where Greg's younger brother playing. Before things got started we were standing at the bar when I noticed that our high school chemistry teacher was standing just a few feet away (she didn't look as though she was in the mood to talk to former students) We then made our way over to The Martini Bar, an establishment that is typically too upscale for me, to see a friend who was doing the band's sound. Eventually, or once things began to wrap up at The Martini Bar, we made our way back to Trapper John's to catch the end of the band's show. Just before the band finished up Greg realized that we were just feet away from another former teacher of ours from junior high. Though we hadn't seen this guy in almost 15 years he immediately remembered both how he knew us and also our names. I was quite impressed.
Probably at about 3:00 we decided to head out. While I was fine with walking, some others in our party were interested in taking a cab, so we decided to take a cab. Not surprisingly, trying to get a cab as all of the bars cleared out did not turn out to be a particularly easy task. The process was complicated by us going to multiple strange locations. Fortunately we were able to eventually get a cab and make our way home.
While nothing particularly spectacular happened, I had a great time (though I don't know how many more similar nights I will be able to handle this trip).
-This afternoon Kirsten, Neil, Rebecca, and I all went to a former co-worker's house for brunch. We had traditional dishes like bacon and sausage, but also a great grits dish. The afternoon was really quite fun. I think Kirsten really liked playing with their small dog.
-Later this afternoon, maybe it might even be safe to say that it was early evening, Neil, Rebecca and I decided to try to do some Christmas shopping at da Mall. Unfortunately, not only was the place maggoty, but none of us really found anything that we were interested in buying. In general, though this is not meant to reflect negatively on my companions, it was a pretty unpleasant trip.
-Yesterday evening, after putting in quite a few hours, I was finally able to finish my exam grading. Already I feel more relaxed and able to enjoy things. I am particularly looking forward to tomorrow as I will be able to sleep in without guilt and then spend the better part of the day resting, relaxing, and reading (at least that is my plan).
Yesterday, after almost a year's absence, I finally returned to St. John's and Newfoundland for a brief Christmastime visit. Aside from the many more phone calls than would be the case in Halifax it has been quite nice to be home.
When we left yesterday we started our trip with a cab to the airport. Three things were quite memorable about the cab ride. The first was the the cab was much colder than most cabs. While I didn't find this to be a problem, it did really stand out. Secondly, both Neil and I likely fell asleep for some portion of the ride out (Neil was in the back with Rebecca and I was in the front). Apparently we both feel asleep at approximately the same time and then woke up at about the same time. Rebecca was observant enough to notice that my quick glance down as I was waking up was to check for drool. I really hoped that I hadn't drooled on the seatbelt while I was sleeping (and I hadn't).
Once we got to the airport we made our way to the Porter check-in area. Unfortunately we encountered an employee who was new to the position, and thus rather slow and cumbersome. Anyway, without too many problems we managed to check our bags, pick up two free newspapers, and be on our way.
Once we had checked in we made a brief detour to the arrivals section of the airport to visit the ATM. While in the general area Rebecca and Neil spotted a fresh cotton candy vending machine and decided to go for it. While I was a little bit skeptical about the whole thing, I was glad to see the machine in operation (and that it wasn't my money that had initiated the process).
[Embedded Video]
As you can see, the machine seems to have really done its job well. I think that we were all surprised that it was a full-sized cotton candy serving for much less than one might pay at fair/street food booth. So if you see one of these you should feel comfortable that they do have the capacity to pump out real, fresh cotton candy.
Eventually we made our way through security with few problems, though they did change the regulations again so the plan that Neil and I had regarding our computers and thin neoprene sleeves was foiled. Anyway, none of us were wanded, which is really the most important thing.
Almost as soon as we were through security we noticed that our flight was delayed, something that we were surprised that the check-in desk staff didn't mention. Furthermore, based on information available on the arrivals and departures screens, it was clear that something was amiss, there was no way that our plane could arrive and then depart in the expected time frame.
We decided that with our extra time we would head to one of the restaurants in the secure area. We ended up sitting in the VLT zone. So not only where we about to watch drunken travelers pound down $6 singles, we were also able to watch many more people pump money into VLTs. What was amazing about the experience is that most of the machines were in use for the entire period of time that we were there. Only occasionally would a machine free up, and then it would be snapped up by another customer.
While watching the VLTers we ate our rather sub-par food and sent out a few rather detail sparse emails. Eventually, after maybe an hour and a half, we decided to move our operation to a coffee establishment so that we could access a larger table.
Once settled with our beverages and donuts all three of us attempted to do some school-related work. Rebecca was doing some course prep for a course see will be teaching in the Winter, I was trying to do some overdue grading, and Neil was doing some computer based stuff (and some reading). Not surprisingly, we weren't particularly productive in this setting. After only a few exams I packed it in.
Eventually we made our way to the waiting area for our flight. Amazingly, the airline was still insisting that the plane would be leaving at originally re-scheduled time, even though it was clear that the plane we were to be catching still had not landed and was really even likely to be that close.
When the plane eventually did land we were able to board quite quickly, and after a quick trip to the de-icing station we were off. Only once the plan started moving did those of us in row 7 (Rebecca, Neil, me, and a guy named Justin) realized that we were sitting right next to the propellors. This was somewhat of an intimidating and loud position to find one's self.
Fortunately, I had a very pleasant chat with Justin, a St. Mary's University student from Newfoundland. Sitting next to him made the flight go much more quickly and pleasantly than it would have otherwise.
We eventually landed in St. John's, a few hours later than expected, we found that it was raining quite heavily and windy (not exactly my favourite December weather). Fortunately, the car wasn't too far away and we were soon on the road.
The other fortunate thing is that my mother had prepared dinner so we didn't have to wait a particularly long time to get food after we had returned.
Though I have managed to really stretch this post to several hundred words, it was generally a pretty uneventful, pleasant trip.
Yesterday afternoon I made a trip over to the grocery store in lieu of taking a nap (a strange exchange I know). Anyway, there were a few things I needed to pick up for dinner and seemed like a good time to go. Additionally, there a few deals I was hoping to take advantage of, particularly $10 off coupon and a good price on butter.
Soon after I arrived I was able to pick up a few of the produce items I needed before heading back to snag a package of on sale boneless-skinless chicken breasts (on sale for $3.77 a pound). As I was just feet away from the chicken display a man approached me and asked me if I wanted a free tin of cookies.
It seems that he was working for a credit card company who was giving away a tin of cookies to individuals who applied for their credit card. As I had already been planning on doing this in the coming days I decided to go for it (especially if he was going to do the data entry and give me the cookies). Anyway, within just a few moments I had my tin of cookies (I think they would have cost about $15) and a coupon so that I could walk out of store with them for free.
After completing most of my shopping I made my way to the small housewares and toys section of the store. I was planning on looking at the game selection to try to take advantage of a $10 off coupon that we had for certain games. After a few minutes I settled on Monopoly City, a re-working of the the classic property collecting game. After removing the value of the coupon from the price I ended up paying less than $10 for the game.
I guess I should also mention that they were having a tax-free day, so I didn't have to pay sales tax on the game or some of my other products. It was an incredibly satisfying trip to the grocery store, much more that I thought it would be when I set out.
In the early days, Montifax was quite willing to to come out either in favour of something or as opposed to something. One example of this that sticks in my mind was Montifax's position that Avenue du Parc should not have had its name changed (in the end the name was not changed). For one reason or another, this practice seems to have fallen off a little over the past few years. Fortunately, this morning, I encountered something that disgusted both Neil and I and has lead me to revive the practice.
On the front page of today's print edition of the Globe and Mail there is a picture of an Olympic torch bearer running through the House of Commons, with MPs present, while carrying a lit torch. Not only does this suggest that longstanding parliamentary rules regarding strangers on the floor of the House were broken for the torch bearer, it also suggests an alarming disregard for safety (particularly in a set of buildings that have already had at least one run-in with fire). Generally torches inside aren't a particularly good idea. The incredible arrogance demonstrated by Olympic organizers in this instance has allowed me to feel relatively confident that I am correct in firmly planting Montifax in the anti-Vancouver 2010 Olympics camp.
To be perfectly honest, both Montifax and I had been leaning in this direction for some number of years. Not only do the Vancouver 2010 Olympics generally upset me because they are Olympics (which are generally wasteful and unpleasant), but they are also Winter Olympics (which are even more ridiculous than the Summer version). Also, for some number of years the Vancounver 2010 Olympics have been hogging an unreasonable amount of space in newspapers and media reports (the stories are frequently about either cost overruns or female ski jumpers who have not been allowed to compete). More recently, this media hogging has been really stepped up in the context of the torch relay. At least a half-page has been devoted to this non-story by the Globe and Mail since it started, and I presume that this will continue until the Olympics start in 2010.
Though this isn't my primary concern (the newspaper issue is), it seems quite clear that this event is likely to be incredibly environmentally unfriendly. Not only are thousands and thousands of athletes and tourists going to fly to Vancouver, but they have been taking greenhouse gas emitting torches to almost every corner of Canada for the past number of weeks. It is though they are making a show of their environmental unfriendliness.
And while I have nothing against businesses making money, I am not a particularly big fan of foreign broadcasters making millions on the backs of Canadian tax payers (and other equivalent situations). While I don't have the precise numbers in front of me, I really don't see how this will work out as a net positive for Canada in a financial sense in the end.
It is probably a little too late for our editorial position really to change much of anything, but it seemed worth putting out there, if only for educational purposes.
So it seems that Dalhousie has a nuclear reactor. The reactor is located in the Life Sciences Center, which is the building next to the Hicks building, which is where I spend most of my time on campus.
I learned that there is a nuclear reactor on campus when I read a story from CBC about the fact that they are planning on dismantling it. I guess I am just a little surprised as it isn't something that you normally think of as being part of a thriving university community (Come for our students, our faculty and staff, and stay for our nuclear reactor). I presume that now that the news about it being dismantled (and that it exists) is in the public domain we can expect the usual assortment of student protesters (though I don't know what they would be protesting).
Another thing I recently learned about at Dalhousie is their Aquatron. While I still don't really know what this is, it does have a pretty impressive name and place on campus.
-Today was a little on the cool side. At the moment the reported temperature is -6. Not surprisingly, I get the sense that things are a little cooler in other parts of the country. While we had a little bit of snow a few days ago, there is really not much to show for it at the moment.
-My friend Peter, a new Dal library student, is crashing with us for a night or two before he heads back to St. John's for Christmas. A few minutes ago he asked me a few questions about Dialog, a database aggregation service that is used in the library context. This really reminded me of this time of year in 2006 when I too was working on a Dialog project at the end of my first term of library school. As Dialog uses a command drive search interface it isn't particularly surprising that I wasn't as helpful as I might have been in December 2006 (I remember the concepts, just not the specific commands).
-I have been really cutting back on caffeine for the past two days. I was starting to notice that I was consuming so much that I was reducing my level of productivity. One of the major problems was that I was unable to get to sleep at a reasonable time, which meant that I was throwing my schedule more and more out of whack and not really getting more done.
Anyway, so far it looks as though the decision has been a good one and I may try to stick to my current low level of consumption (a liter of coffee a day).
-I came across some rather good news recently. It seems that my former roommate in Montreal has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, which he will be taking up in October. While I have been incredibly pleased when other friends have been awarded scholarships and fellowships I think that none have made me happier than hearing about this award. I really think that they picked a great candidate.
-I should get back to work, I have all kinds of it to do.
The Tobolowsky Files is a podcast that features Stephen Tobolowsky, the actor who played Ned Ryerson in Groundhog's Day, telling thematically linked stories about his life. So far each episode has been about 45 minutes of very solid content.
Anyway, if you are into storytelling podcasts like the Moth, which also features people telling true stories about their lives, you might like this one.
-We had heavy rain for much of the day today. As I had to make the trip to school on foot this was not a particularly desirable weather condition. Fortunately by late this evening things started to calm down to the point that it now seems quite calm.
-While at the grocery store this evening I was seduced by the Horlick's and the Ovaltine Cookies, two products that I have consumed on a rather irregular basis for the past number of years. So far I can confirm that the very reasonably priced Ovaltine Cookies are definitely as good as I remember. I imagine that I will give the Horlick's a shot tomorrow and will then be able to tell you whether I still have a taste for it.
-This afternoon I had to swing by the hospital for an x-ray. The process was pretty quick and to the point, actually I think that they were using some kind of digital x-ray that really sped things up.
While waiting for my x-ray I was sitting in a gown and robe in the waiting room when a hospital employee walked into the room carrying a Christmas decoration. To no one in particular, but loud enough that we could all hear, he proclaimed that it was time to put up some decorations. He decided to put the decoration on the wall right next to the where I was sitting (not that this is a key detail).
Shortly after he reached the wall I heard something fall, followed by the employee stating in a rather exasperated tone "Oh poop, right in the garbage." It seems that he dropped a thumb tack in the garbage. He was then kind enough to point out that there was only one thing in the garbage can (an empty coffee cup), a level of fullness with which he felt comfortable digging around to find the pin.
After putting up one more decoration he left and I didn't seem him before I completed my visit to the x-ray department.
-I had to lead a review class today. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, I wasn't really able to engage the students. I think that part of the problem was that it was the last class of the year and I hadn't taught them before.
-I had a rather unsuccessful trip to the grocery store this evening. Not only did I forget to even look for cream of tartar, they were out of the right kind of tofu and frozen raspberries, and I completely forgot to use the lone coupon I had with me. I guess this means that I will have to go back tomorrow.
Just a few days ago I had to visit a doctor's office to pick up an x-ray requisition. Before heading up to the office I stopped by one of building's public restrooms. Once in the restroom I noticed that the building's designers either really wanted each male restroom to have a urinal or that they didn't really have a sense of privacy. In case you are curious, this basic set-up exists in more than one of the building's bathrooms (which makes it all the more impressive).
A few weeks ago, though I don't really know why or how, the subject of bidets came up in our apartment. Eventually Rebecca even sent me a "how to" article on bidet use (though they are still a bit of a mystery to me). Given the recent discussions and my continuing failure to understand why they exist I was a little surprised to find one in bathroom just off of the x-ray waiting room at the local hospital (where I was getting the x-ray associated with aforementioned requisition). Given their rarity and that many North Americans don't seem to know how to use them or why they exist, I wonder how many times these bidets are misused in the hospital context. It seems that having such a fixture would just be an invitation for trouble, particularly given that as you are in a hospital you know that some relatively high number of people are likely a little bit more out of it than usual. Though I was thinking of temporarily creating a fountain with this bidet I settled for just taking a photo.
To finish this theme off, while I was having my x-ray taken our apartment's bathroom was having its faucets examined for leaks and a new shower head installed. While these aren't really fixtures, I think that they qualify as related.
-It has become noticeably more Wintery in the last few days. Instead of just wearing a sports coat, I have actually started wearing an insulated jacked, scarf, and hat. A few days ago we even had a few snowflakes fall, though we managed to avoid real accumulation.
-I went for my Swine Flu vaccination shot today. Dalhousie was providing a free shot service so I thought I might as well stop by. What was particularly impressive about the whole thing is how well organized it was. They were moving people through quite quickly, the result being that when I went there wasn't a line even though a steady stream of people kept arriving. So far my arm and I feel fine. I am expecting that by some point tomorrow I will start to feel something in the arm where I received the shot.
-My big news yesterday was that I submitted my SSHRC graduate fellowship application. SSHRC is a federally funded granting agency, and one of the main sources for graduate funding in the social sciences and humanities. While it would be great to get a SSHRC fellowship I am not holding out much hope, the odds are not in my favour.
-We had a tofu stir-fry for dinner yesterday night. I thought it was pretty tasty.
-A few days ago I was thinking about writing about the people that borrow my fountain pen and are then able to use properly. I was going to comment on the seeming universal inability of the current generation to use fountain pens. Of course I ended up loaning my pen to two younger students today and neither of them had any problems. Good thing I didn't write was I was thinking about writing as I think it turns out that it wouldn't have held up.
-All three of my classes have come through with extensions for their essays. Though this means I won't have much free time before my Christmas departure I think it will generally be a good thing the quality of the essays.
-On Saturday we played a hard fought game of Ultimate. While we were leading at halftime we ended up losing by a point.
